Asked by: Lord MacKenzie of Culkein (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessments they have carried out on the future of resilient position, navigation and timing systems and the vulnerability of the global navigation satellite system to intentional and unintentional jamming.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government recognises the strengths and limitations of global navigation satellite systems such as GPS and Galileo, and the importance of the position, navigation and timing services that they provide.
The issue of the vulnerability of satellite based navigation systems has been addressed in the National Space Security Policy, which notes that the signals received from satellite navigation systems are inherently weak. The policy recognises that a proportionate approach is needed to ensure that space infrastructures are resilient to threats, including for instance the use of alternative or fall-back methods of providing the necessary services in the event of an interruption.
Responsibility for determining alternative methods will rest largely with owners and operators of space services or with infrastructure owners and operators, with oversight provided by lead Government departments. UK industry has well recognised capability in developing systems that identify and mitigate intentional and unintentional interference to GNSS.