Orolia Working on GPS Jamming and Spoofing Solutions for DoD

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – As international incidents increase, and the U.S. military begins an uptick in training exercises on global positioning service (GPS) jamming, military leaders are looking more toward industry for answers on how to combat the growing issue.

Paul Zweers, vice president of the global Aerospace, Defense and Government business units for Orolia, said a few recent occurances are putting a spotlight on the issue — including an incident last February, where Finland and Norway suspected and accused Russia of GPS signal jamming during a NATO-led drill.

“Operating in [a] Global Navigation Satellite System-denied environment and GPS jamming and spoofing are the buzzwords everybody is talking about,” he said.

GPS jamming occurs when radio frequency transmitters are used to intentionally block or interfere with communication devices, such as a GPS, cell phones and Wi-Fi networks. GPS spoofing involves the practice of using fake GPS signals to trick equipment and send false location signals. 

“We have more proof, beside incidental jamming, that there’s active spoofing and jamming going on in certain parts of the world. Everybody is painfully aware this exists, and they are asking how we can we overcome this and what are the solutions,” Zweers said during an interview on the show floor of the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space exposition.

Orolia currently provides support for cybersecurity and interoperability for the Department of Defense, and it is working on expanding its SecureSync platform, which combines multi-GNSS signal synchronization options BroadShield GPS anti-jamming/spoofing protection and superior low phase noise capability for military systems.

“We have quite a broad portfolio, and in the coming years we will be looking to expand our PNT [position navigation time] mission set,” he said.