land battle, space
U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Jacob Edwards, assigned to 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, during the Victory Corps Walter D. Ehlers Cup in Grafenwohr, Germany, June 4, 2023. Complete the operation of the Defense Advanced GPS Receiver. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Karlan Moore)
GEOINT 2024 — Rather than focusing on a specific type of technology, the Army is relying on GPS satellites to provide positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) signals, according to the service’s lead official on “alt-PNT.” They say they are looking for a variety of alternatives. ” effort.
Michael Monteleone, director of Army Futures Command’s new All-Domain Sensing Cross-Functional Team (CFT), said Sunday that the Army has hundreds of different platforms that navigate using Global Positioning System satellite signals. explained.
“From an Army perspective, every field is going to be a little bit different for us. I mean, if I’m on the ground, there are some things that I can leverage just by being on the ground, but being in the air “You might not be able to do that if you’re traveling with a precision-guided munition at incredible speeds and maybe spinning while I’m in the air,” he said here in Kissimmee, Florida. He spoke to Defense News Bulletin at the U.S. Geospatial-Intelligence Foundation’s annual conference.
“They all impact what we use, so we’re looking at everything,” he said.
In addition, Monteleone said the service will be strategic about which sensors and capabilities to put on which platforms based on mission and cost to enable plans to modernize the force structure around human-machine integration. He emphasized that it needs to be.
“I don’t want to use something that’s very expensive and very capable. [alternative] The PNT system is on board the Stryker platform and the Abrams tank, for example, and we stick it on the robot that I’m training to make first contact,” Monteleone explained.
Monteleone said cost factors also come into play for PNT applications that require large-scale deployment (such as hand-held systems for soldiers or body-worn items), but the service will help drive commercial innovation. It is said to be under consideration.
“You have to say, ‘Is it affordable?'” he stressed.
Monteleone said the service is looking at how to leverage commercial innovation for those types of missions.
“If possible, I would call and say, ‘Please have this package delivered to my house within two hours,’ and a drone would come out of nowhere – I don’t know what happened, in the rainy weather, but it didn’t. I didn’t hit a tree, I didn’t hit a telephone pole, I didn’t fall into the neighbor’s cat, and I delivered the package on time. I want to use that technology everywhere.”
“I’d love to see more commoditized features,” Monteleone said. “I can’t live in a world of, “It worked in the lab.” It’s only when you start to understand it in an applied sense that you say, “Okay, the technology works, how do we translate it into a combat weapons system platform?” How can we incorporate it and how can we use it to our advantage?”
Monteleone said that, fortunately, there are a number of new and improved sensor technologies that can be used to deliver PNTs and are expected to become commercially available in the near future.
One example is quantum sensing, he said.
“There’s an incredible amount of innovation happening from a quantum sensing perspective, and things are becoming more and more real and demonstrable types of functionality,” Monteleone said.
Quantum sensors for PNTs use atomic accelerometers or gyroscopes that use lasers to direct the laser into a small cloud of rubidium gas contained within a vacuum chamber, according to Sandia National Laboratories, which is conducting research into its use. “By irradiating it with light, we measure acceleration and rotation.”
Another alternative PNT technology the Army is interested in is so-called magnetic navigation (mag-nav), which relies on mapping the magnetic field within the Earth’s crust, Monteleone and other experts said in a 2016 study. He said he spoke on a panel on alternative PNTs in 2017. GEOINT conference on Sunday.
Not only can the MagNavi system not be jammed or spoofed, but it is also a “passive system” that does not require a broadcast signal, making the use of the PNT system not a means of targeting the U.S. military, GEOINT said. Senior Nikki Malkiel, an authority on geography at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, told the panel.
Monteleone added, “Mag-nav is interesting because it can also be used for multiple domains.”
