DHS plans GPS spoof testing event for 2024

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has announced plans for a new testing program to evaluate how well GPS systems perform against spoofing and disruption exploits.

DHS S&T’s 2024 GPS Testing for Critical Infrastructure (GET-CI) event is scheduled for Fall 2024. It will allow critical infrastructure owners and operators (CI O&O) and GPS equipment manufacturers to identify any weaknesses in their equipment.

“Accurate and precise positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) information is vital to the nation’s critical infrastructure,” said Dimitri Kusnezov, DHS under secretary for science and technology. “The GET-CI test series are part of the S&T PNT Program’s collaborative efforts designed to help industry partners test and evaluate their technologies to become more resilient against PNT disruptions.”

Typical commercial testing and data collection occurs in a closed environment. This DHS S&T test will provide an “opportunity for CI O&O and manufacturers of commercial GPS receivers used in critical infrastructure to perform equipment evaluations in a rarely available live-sky spoofing and jamming environment,” said DHS.

The testing event also aims to create a live-sky GPS environment primarily for fixed infrastructure applications but will also support some ground-based mobile applications, according to DHS.

DHS is calling on commercial, academic and civil society organizations to submit applications by October 20, 2023, to participate in the testing event next year.

For submission instructions and further information, see the Request for Information for Participation (RFIP) announcement on SAM.gov.