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With Navigation Warfare (NAVWAR) tactics evolving rapidly, developers in the defense sector are challenged to build resilient Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems that can withstand sophisticated jamming and spoofing attacks. In addition, these NAVWAR threats are increasingly threatening commercial sectors reliant on GNSS, from autonomous vehicles to civil aviation. Creating robust PNT systems that can maintain reliable performance in contested environments is essential to safeguarding critical operations.
Key NAVWAR Testing Considerations
To create robust PNT systems that can handle NAVWAR threats, defense developers need to simulate realistic, contested scenarios in the lab. Here are some essential testing considerations:
High-Dynamic Trajectories
NAVWAR environments often involve fast-moving platforms, like drones or fighter jets, which undergo rapid changes in speed and direction. High-dynamic trajectories must be accurately modeled to ensure systems can respond to GNSS disruptions in real time. Developers need high simulation update rates to capture the subtle nuances of fast-moving vehicles and their interaction with GNSS and interfering signals.
Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) Testing
CRPA technology represents a significant step forward for combating jamming and spoofing through its ability to direct antenna reception away from interference. Testing these systems requires precise signal wavefront modeling to emulate jamming threats realistically. Defense developers need tools that enable repeatable lab-based CRPA testing to verify the performance of null-steering and beamforming algorithms.
Encrypted and Alternative PNT Signals
Military-grade GNSS receivers often use encrypted signals like M-Code and Galileo PRS, which enhance resistance to interference. Additionally, alternative PNT sources like low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites provide supplementary signals to improve resilience. Developers looking to incorporate these technologies should ensure that their testing environments can simulate the encrypted and alternative signals, allowing them to validate the performance of PNT systems under realistic conditions.
Jamming and Spoofing Threat Combinations
In real-world defense scenarios, PNT systems may encounter complex, layered threats, including both jamming and spoofing simultaneously. Developers must simulate these combinations, particularly as vehicles move through dynamic environments where signal strengths vary. Testing tools should support diverse threat combinations to allow for more accurate threat response evaluation.
Environmental Factors in Military Operations
Signal performance is influenced by real-world obstacles, like buildings or natural terrain, which cause obscuration, diffraction, and multipath effects. For military operations, replicating these effects in the lab enables defense developers to see how GNSS signals behave in urban combat zones, mountainous regions, or remote locations, helping them create systems resilient to challenging environments.
Introducing PNT X: Advanced Testing for NAVWAR Resilience
To help defense developers meet these challenges, Spirent’s PNT X offers a comprehensive solution for creating ultra-realistic NAVWAR test environments. Built specifically for high-fidelity NAVWAR testing, PNT X enables detailed simulation of complex scenarios, from high-dynamic trajectories to multi-layered jamming and spoofing threats. Read more about PNT X’s capabilities in this blog.
Key among those capabilities are:
Flexible Signal Modeling: With up to 640 independent signals generated simultaneously, PNT X can replicate a variety of GNSS, LEO, and alternative PNT sources in a single scenario, providing realistic and challenging environments. Signals available include custom waveforms introduced via external I/Q, or via the FLEX signal modification feature. For more on simulating alternative and complementary PNT signals, see this blog.
High-Resolution Update Rates: PNT X’s 2 kHz update rate, along with an optional 100 kHz for spinning vehicles, accurately models high-speed, dynamic applications such as missiles and hypersonic vehicles. For more information on high update rates and dynamic testing, read this blog.
CRPA Simulation: PNT X simplifies CRPA testing, enhancing the efficiency of critical testing. It also maintains unrivaled phase alignment, ensuring scenarios are as realistic as possible. To learn more about CRPA testing, explore this white paper.
Enhanced Dynamic Range for Interference: PNT X offers a continuous dynamic range of 140 dB, allowing developers to test equipment against high-power jammers and simulate real-world changes in interference levels. To learn more about continuous dynamic range in NAVWAR testing, see this blog.
For a deeper understanding of how PNT X can enhance NAVWAR resilience, download our eBook "Simulating NAVWAR: Creating Ultra-Realistic PNT Test Scenarios in the Lab". This guide details how developers can utilize Spirent’s advanced testing capabilities to meet the demands of increasingly sophisticated NAVWAR threats.
