IN Brief:
- Pacific Defense has received a US Army PM PNT contract for the CMFF APNT Block 2 plug-in-card development programme.
- The rugged 3U VPX card is aligned to SOSA and CMOSS standards.
- The design fuses GPS, alternative signals, inertial sensors, and vehicle data to preserve positioning and timing in contested environments.
Pacific Defense has received a US Army contract to develop the next-generation Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing plug-in card for military platforms, placing GPS-denied resilience into a modular open-systems hardware format.
The contract covers the CMOSS Mounted Form Factor Assured PNT Block 2 plug-in-card development programme under US Army Program Manager Positioning, Navigation and Timing. The card is a rugged 3U VPX design aligned to The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture and the C5ISR Modular Open Suite of Standards. It is designed to provide resilient navigation and precise timing in contested and GPS-degraded environments.
The card fuses data from GPS, alternative navigation signals, inertial sensors, and platform vehicle data to maintain position and timing awareness when traditional GNSS signals are disrupted or denied. Under the programme, Pacific Defense will design, build, and test an enhanced version of its Block 1 APNT plug-in card, with initial prototype quantities supporting US Army system integration and test activity.
APNT is becoming a platform-wide requirement rather than a specialist add-on. Armoured vehicles, artillery systems, air-defence systems, aviation platforms, command vehicles, maritime systems, and uncrewed platforms all depend on timing and positioning. When GPS is jammed or spoofed, navigation becomes a mission-system problem and a cyber-resilience problem at the same time.
A modular 3U VPX card offers a practical insertion route across multiple platforms. Instead of building a separate navigation solution for every vehicle or aircraft, the Army can move toward a standards-aligned card that fits within CMOSS architectures. That supports faster integration, easier upgrades, and a clearer supply chain. It also helps avoid closed, bespoke electronics that are expensive to maintain and difficult to modernise.
Pacific Defense’s work sits inside a broader shift toward open architecture in US defence electronics. SOSA and CMOSS are intended to reduce vendor lock-in, simplify integration, and allow new capabilities to be inserted without rebuilding entire mission systems. That is especially valuable for APNT because navigation threats evolve quickly. A card that can accept new sensors, algorithms, or timing sources over time has more value than a fixed system designed around one threat model.
The same hardening pressure is visible in post-quantum cyber requirements for defence contractors, where resilience is being pulled into hardware, software, and supply-chain planning. APNT belongs in that category. It is not a headline weapon, but it determines whether platforms can operate when the electromagnetic environment becomes hostile.
Manufacturing a rugged APNT card brings its own demands. The electronics must survive vibration, shock, heat, electromagnetic interference, and platform power variation. Components need traceability, long-term availability, secure firmware, and protection against tampering. The card must also perform reliably across different host platforms, making interface discipline as important as component selection.
The fusion problem is technically demanding. GPS provides a convenient baseline when available, but denied environments require the system to weigh other inputs. Inertial sensors drift over time. Alternative signals may be intermittent. Vehicle data may be noisy or platform-specific. The APNT card has to combine those inputs in a way that is accurate enough for navigation, weapons, communications, and network timing.
That timing function is often overlooked. Many military networks, radios, sensors, and fire-control systems depend on precise synchronisation. A platform that loses trusted timing can lose more than map position. It can lose network coherence, targeting accuracy, and confidence in shared data. In a digitised battlefield, PNT failure can cascade across systems.
Initial work is focused on mounted ground and aviation platforms, with wider applicability across airborne, ground, and maritime systems. Primary work will be conducted at facilities in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Mukilteo, Washington; Sunnyvale, California; and El Segundo, California. That distributed footprint reflects the blend of embedded electronics, systems integration, and defence programme execution required for the work.
The Block 2 APNT card is a small component in physical terms, but it sits inside a large operational problem. GPS disruption is now expected in peer and near-peer conflict. The US Army’s response is to make resilience modular, standards-based, and insertable across platforms. For the defence electronics industry, that points to sustained demand for rugged open-systems hardware that can keep platforms oriented, timed, and connected when satellite signals can no longer be trusted.
