The Ministry of Defence has awarded a GBP 6 million contract to QinetiQ-led Team Elaris to develop a deployable solution concept for enhanced Long-Range Navigation, an alternative to satellite-based positioning systems that can continue to function when GPS signals are jammed or spoofed by adversaries, according to QinetiQ.
The two-year Urgent Compass programme will be used to inform future demonstration, production and deployment packages of work. Enhanced Long-Range Navigation, known as eLoran, is a terrestrially based system that provides an alternative to global navigation satellite systems in contested environments where adversaries may attempt to deny or degrade satellite signals.
A jammed or spoofed satellite navigation signal, if undetected or uncorrected, can result in misdirected troop movements or incorrectly guided missile trajectories, leading to mission failure.
Team Elaris is made up of QinetiQ, UrsaNav, Roke and GMV, with each organisation bringing technical knowledge and domain expertise in position, navigation and timing technologies to the partnership. The programme will explore both deployable and fixed eLoran solutions, with a particular focus on systems that can be quickly deployed into contested locations worldwide.
Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard said the investment would boost the armed forces’ resilience on the battlefield by “developing technology to protect them, ensuring that they can continue vital operations protecting UK citizens and allies around the world.” He described the contract as “our Defence Industrial Strategy in action”, saying the government was “backing innovative technology companies, boosting defence skills and strengthening supply chains, making defence an engine for growth across the UK.”
Steve Wadey, Group CEO of QinetiQ, said the award brought together Team Elaris’ decades of advanced navigation experience and built on existing work to deliver alternative navigation solutions, adding that the team’s expertise in eLoran systems would “support the UK Government’s requirements for resilient position, navigation and timing capabilities to help protect the UK from adversaries seeking to undermine this critical service.”
The Urgent Compass programme extends QinetiQ’s existing engagement with the MoD on assured position, navigation and timing solutions, which also includes the Robust Global Navigation System programme, another component of the MoD’s approach to resilient navigation.
So is this going to be an alternative approach to the quantum clock that have bean trialled?
In the end the quantum clock is a massively expensive bit of kit that’s a good 30kgs and needs a couple or square feet and costly..
This looks they are after a small cheaper option for land use..
In the end the RNs quantum clock is essentially about a SSBN being independent of drift issues for a couple of months.. that’s a massively different issue than managing a few days or so bit of drift your looking at on a land based system.