IN Brief:
- QinetiQ-led Team Elaris has won a £6 million UK MoD contract.
- The work will develop enhanced Long-Range Navigation as a GPS alternative.
- The programme will shape future demonstration, production, and deployment packages for resilient PNT.
The UK Ministry of Defence has awarded a £6 million contract to QinetiQ-led Team Elaris to develop a deployable enhanced Long-Range Navigation concept for operations where satellite navigation is jammed or spoofed.
The two-year Urgent Compass programme will examine deployable and fixed eLoran options. Team Elaris brings together QinetiQ, UrsaNav, Roke, and GMV, combining specialist capability in position, navigation, and timing technologies.
The work responds to growing dependence on global navigation satellite systems across military operations. PNT data underpins troop movement, guided weapons, communications timing, platform synchronisation, and command networks. When GNSS signals are degraded, denied, or manipulated, effects can spread quickly across the force.
eLoran provides a terrestrial alternative that can complement satellite-based navigation. Its role is not to replace GPS entirely, but to create another resilient layer for operations in contested electromagnetic environments.
Turning resilient PNT into deployable equipment
The production challenge is packaging resilient PNT into systems that can be deployed, maintained, and integrated across platforms. Equipment must be rugged, accurate, secure, and compatible with existing receivers, mission systems, and command networks.
Testing will be central. Navigation equipment has to be validated against jamming, spoofing, terrain effects, interference, timing errors, and platform-level integration problems. That requires signal-generation facilities, field trials, secure software, calibration processes, and repeatable acceptance testing.
The programme also brings supply-chain questions. Resilient PNT depends on antennas, receivers, timing hardware, embedded software, ruggedised electronics, and installation kits. Each element has to be produced and supported at a standard suitable for military use.
Urgent Compass places navigation resilience inside the defence industrial base rather than treating it as a background service. As electronic warfare intensifies, production capacity around assured PNT will sit alongside sensors, communications, and cyber protection as a core military requirement.
