Sunnyvale, Calif.-based oneNav is touting test results in Israel that showed its GPS technology is resilient to widespread interference, including jamming and spoofing. The company, which has been featured in the national media this week, tested its L5 technology around Haifa, Israel, in smartphones and smartwatches, the company said.
In a warzone, oneNav tested its L5-direct GPS receiver against receivers found in iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel smartphones and Garmin $GRMN watches. The company said the tests revealed that all the embedded receivers failed due to GPS interference—except its L5-direct.
“We now have clear, indisputable evidence that L5-direct is resilient to widespread GPS jamming and is able to provide precision location in GPS-contested environments,” said oneNav CEO Steve Poizner, in a statement. “This test is a real-world validation of our first-of-its-kind technology and shows the potential for L5-direct to revolutionize how we use GPS for civilian and military purposes in Israel and globally.”
The company, which offers a video of the test, said that the outdated L1 GPS signal is not doing the job. In addition, while GPS receivers in smartphones, car navigation systems, and airplanes are able to process the L5 band, they can only do so in a hybrid system that must first acquire L1. This hybrid requirement constitutes an “enormous national security and public safety risk,” the company said.
OneNav cites interference in Ukraine, where Russia is hampering American-made smart bombs and drones on the battlefield through GPS-jamming technology. Russia also is accused of interfering with GPS navigation systems in more than 46,000 flights across Europe.
There are additional hurdles to the adoption of the L5 signal and associated equipment—one is that it can’t work in most existing GPS receivers. In addition, the L5 signal needs the GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, but it has been delayed for years.
