President Trump this week signed an executive order aimed at strengthening U.S. infrastructure against the disruption of critical services like GPS.
Not mentioned by the White House in announcing the order is that the bolstering of precision, navigation and timing — or PNT — services will also greatly bolster the military’s capability to conduct precision-strike warfare.
The order is aimed at preventing an electronic disruption of the numerous systems that rely on accurate PNT, most notably the GPS navigation system. Civilian uses of PNT include traffic management and precision agriculture and in the future will be needed for driverless cars and drones.
Other critical infrastructures that rely on PNT include the electrical power grid, communications infrastructure and mobile devices, transportation, weather forecasting and emergency response.
Federal agencies are directed under the order to survey PNT vulnerabilities within one year.
“Because GPS signals and the signals of other countries’ global navigation and satellite systems have been susceptible to man-made and natural disruption, we must engineer our critical infrastructures to be resilient to disruption or manipulation of these signals,” a senior Trump administration official said.
“This action by the president will help to ensure that the United States maintains uninterrupted access to essential services that rely on PNT,” the White House said in announcing the executive order.
The measure reflects the growing threat to government, the military and society as a whole from electronic warfare and other electronic means such as an electromagnetic pulse, a nuclear blast or a solar storm. Military planners expect major electronic attacks against precision navigation systems like GPS satellites in the early stages of a conflict.
GPS is a critical link in conducting precision-strike warfare, as most advanced missiles rely on information provided by the satellites to guide missiles to specific targets, often with an accuracy of several feet.
China has multiple types of space weapons that could knock out GPS satellites in the early stages of a conflict including missiles, electronic jamming gear and cyberattack capabilities. A Chinese military report published several years ago said GPS satellites are vulnerable to electronic jamming through the telemetry, tracking and control system or TT&C.
“The purpose of jamming of the TT&C system of military satellites is to seize control of satellites and thereby paralyze the system,” said the report, “Satellite Navigation and Positioning: Rationale and Jamming.”
GPS satellites float around the globe in what is known as medium Earth orbit — about 12,550 miles into space.
A recent report by the National Institute for Public Policy said North Korea has used electronic means to disrupt navigation near the Korean Peninsula.
“The successful jamming of GPS signals would have the effect of disrupting timing of U.S. military operations and impairing the use of precision-guided weapons that rely on the GPS signal,” the report said.
GPS “spoofing” — intercepting accurate navigation signals and changing them before they reach ships, aircraft or ground systems — also is considered a danger in conflict. With sophisticated spoofing capabilities, a foreign adversary could cause ships and planes to crash and could lead ground forces into traps.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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