UK government unveils essential signals safeguarding scheme

Just as it was warning of the activities of a Russian spy ship close to UK territorial waters, in particular how it could present a threat to communications, the UK government has announced it is to spend £155m to boost the UK’s resilience and global leadership in the critical field of positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services.

PNT is the bedrock for virtually all modern-day activities from finance to transport that depend on access to reliable and accurate information. Examples cited include satellite navigation services that help people get from A to B, but also timing signals – without which mobile phones and even stock markets could not function properly. Indeed, the UK government cited a study showing that just a 24-hour outage of satellite navigation services could cost the UK economy £1.4bn.

It added that fully secure and smoothly running PNT services were vital for the growth of the economy, particularly in high-growth sectors such as AI and data, and for the delivery of public services.

Yet the UK government warned that recent years have shown the threats posed by the jamming or spoofing of PNT services by hostile actors, and PNT can even be impacted by natural events like solar flares from the sun.

It stressed that in what it called “an uncertain world” where the threats to PNT are growing, the UK cannot be complacent, and added that strengthening the UK’s PNT capabilities will give direction to the growing PNT industry, supporting the wider economy and national renewal, while cementing the UK’s position as a global PNT leader. 

“Having resilient and enduring access to position, navigation and timing services is a critical part of life in today’s world, and a major plank in the UK’s national security,” said UK science minister Patrick Vallance.

“So many of the things we take for granted every day, from using our phones to planning a journey, simply couldn’t happen without it. The UK is a leader in this field, but in an uncertain world, we cannot be complacent. The funding we are announcing today will ultimately help protect Britain from the risks posed to PNT, from both accidental outages and hostile acts, safeguarding everyone’s wealth and well-being.”

The £155m funding is intended to support a programme of work to boost the resilience of UK PNT – including initial work that would provide PNT that is independent of signals from satellites, making it harder to jam or spoof. Funding will also support work on PNT resilience at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, and on a future system that could monitor for threats to the UK’s PNT proactively. 

The investment has four key planks; £71m to begin work on a UK National Enhanced Long-Range Navigation (eLoran) programme, providing PNT across land, air and sea that is independent of signals from satellites, and hard to jam or spoof; £68m for further development of the National Timing Centre programme; £13m for work on a UK Global Navigation Satellite Systems interference monitoring programme; and £3m for a Space Based Time Transfer R&D programme.

The National Timing Centre is being delivered by the National Physical Laboratory, to develop the UK’s first nationally distributed time infrastructure. As well as boosting resilience, it is seen as being able to help use cases such as 5G, satellite communications and self-driving vehicles. 

The UK Global Navigation Satellite Systems interference monitoring programme will aim to deliver “world-leading” capability for the UK to monitor and react to threats to PNT signals, like jamming and spoofing, and develop the technology required to deliver global timing systems independent of GPS and other Global Navigation Satellite Systems.

The move comes after the UK government agreed to work closer with both the US and France around PNT resilience, as part of September’s UK-US Technology Prosperity Deal, and July’s UK-France Summit. The UK government said it also supported the Royal Institute of Navigation to deliver advice, upskilling and best practice that it assured was vital to the PNT industry.