Senators urge Pentagon to review GPS risks to national security and infrastructure

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers want the Pentagon to comprehensively assess security risks from foreign powers and other threats that could disrupt military and civilian applications of the Global Positioning System and associated services that the U.S. and its allies rely on. 

Broadly, GPS refers to a satellite-based navigation system that supplies information about locations and time on Earth. It’s increasingly vulnerable to intentional attacks and other disturbances, partially due to its historic dependence on weak, unencrypted signals beamed from space. 

Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and James Lankford, R-Okla., recently introduced the GPS Resiliency Report Act to help get ahead of GPS-related hazards to America’s foundational systems and public safety.

“GPS technology plays a critical role in both our national infrastructure and our national security, and so we need to remain vigilant about the risks to GPS,” Hassan told DefenseScoop in an email on Tuesday. “This commonsense, bipartisan bill will ensure that the Department of Defense is learning from conflicts around the world, and preparing for the possibility that it cannot rely on GPS satellite technology.”

If passed, the bill would require the secretary of defense to submit a report on “the Global Positioning System and associated positioning, navigation, and timing services” within one year of enactment, according to the legislative text.

That review would be unclassified, with a classified annex if warranted.

Elements of the report would need to include descriptions of risks during a potential conflict in which the U.S. is involved — or in the case of an attack on an ally. Notably, the bill defines allies as members of the NATO alliance, non-NATO partners listed in section 644(q) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and Taiwan.

The lawmakers also call for a full assessment of “the capabilities of competitor countries, including the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to degrade or deny” U.S. GPS access.

Additionally, the report would need to cover current DOD pursuits to develop and buy assets that provide redundant global positioning and positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities — including space-based, terrestrial-based and quantum-sensing technologies. 

Defense officials would also be expected to evaluate the ability of the Space Force’s Resilient Global Positioning System (R-GPS) program to achieve full capacity to provide resilience to existing U.S. satellites, and separately, produce framework for enabling a full-scale terrestrial-based GPS redundancy system that could be operational no later than 15 years after the legislation is enacted.

“By reviewing the risks to current GPS technology, we lay the groundwork for the next generation of position, navigation, and timing systems that will keep us safe, secure, and free,” Hassan said.

Following its introduction, the bill was referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee.