U.S. government also taking a $17 million bite out of transportation PNT efforts…
Reacting to worldwide jamming incidents and other GPS interference, the U.S. Defense Department is asking $1.5 billion for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) resiliency programs as part of its fiscal year 2025 budget.
The PNT chunk of the budget is part of an overall $33.7 billion request for space programs in fiscal year 2025. A request for more resilient satellite communications will account for $4.2 billion more.
While the big number is for DoD programs, it comes at a cost. The government also said it would be cutting $17 million out of the U.S. Transportation Department’s Research and Technology department “for PNT/GNSS/GPS activities.”
Since nearly all of PNT users in the United States are non-military, it is essentially virtual to every technology and infrastructure, said Dana Goward, president of the Resilient Navigation & Timing Foundation, in a LinkedIn post.
“DOD seems to be putting all their PNT eggs in one basket,” he said. “Haven’t we seen a lot in the press about anti-satellite weapons? Didn’t Russia launch one just this week?”
Goward said that while non-military make up the majority of PNT uses, the office that overseas it is vastly understaffed.
 resiliency programs as part of its fiscal year 2025 budget. ){kind=link}