Terrestrial positioning company NextNav NN 1.66%↑ has entered into an agreement with Safran Electronics & Defense to integrate and demonstrate the interoperability of 5G-powered positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities. The collaborative testing program will evaluate how NextNav’s terrestrial 5G PNT network in Santa Clara County, California, interfaces with Safran’s timing and navigation receivers.
By leveraging licensed low-band spectrum and ground-based cellular infrastructure, the partnership aims to create an operational layer of redundancy to protect mission-critical systems when satellite signals are obstructed or electronically jammed.
The initiative focuses on validating continuous 3D positioning and precise timing performance across high-consequence sectors, including autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial systems, public safety communications, and national critical infrastructure. The joint testing will measure signal reliability, coverage depth, and data synchronization to establish baseline criteria for future dual-source navigation architectures.
Despite the technical momentum behind ground-based positioning networks, skeptics within the aerospace and defense industries raise concerns regarding the capital expenditure required to scale terrestrial towers to nationwide coverage compared to global satellite constellations. Naysayers also point out that ground-based 5G transmitters remain vulnerable to localized physical destruction, power grid failures, and terrain line-of-sight obstructions that orbital satellites avoid. Additionally, critics question whether commercial cellular spectrum can achieve the stringent level of encryption and signal hardening mandated by military-grade operational standards.
By pairing ground-based 5G signals with robust end-user hardware, NextNav and Safran aim to deliver a resilient 3D positioning complement that operates seamlessly indoors, within urban canyons, and across dense industrial environments where traditional satellite signals frequently degrade.
The ongoing testing in California will support performance assessments across military, public safety, and civilian infrastructure markets, providing empirical data to guide future procurement decisions by government and enterprise stakeholders.
