Administration Ax Falls on PNT Backup, Loran-C

October 29, 2009 By: Alan Cameron

On October 28, President Barrack Obama signed into law a bill that effectively sounds the death knell for the best hope for a GPS back-up, a system that might have prevented national and industrial infrastructure breakdown in the event of various probable disruptions, interference, or intentional jamming.

The president signed the Department of Homeland Defense (DHS) appropriations bill that allows termination of Loran-C in Jan 2010. Further, the House just passed a revised version of its Coast Guard authorization bill, replacing the mandate to convert Loran-C into eLoran with a call for its termination, in line with the DHS appropriations bill. Further details are available at www.PNT.gov/congress.

The Coast Guard Commandant and DHS are expected to sign off almost immediately that Loran-C can be terminated. Once they sign it, signals will go off air on Jan 4, 2010.

In his first budget, President Obama said that Loran-C was obsolete, and that obsolete systems would be eliminated. It has become clear that the entire Administration and Democrat-led Congress have rallied to support the president’s assertion that Loran-C is the poster child of obsolete systems, and must be killed.

The politicians appear immune to any notion that GPS is vulnerable to a range of disruptions, and that the national timing, communications, and financial infrastructures that depend on GPS are likewise open both to intentional attack and to natural interference.

The president also signed the Department of Defense authorization bill, which among other things authorized a $97.4 million cut to the next-generation GPS ground control system, or OCX.