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Iridium Communications has made its PNT ASIC chip commercially available, following interest from more than 150 organizations since the chip’s Oct. 2025 unveiling.
According to the company, the application-specific integrated circuit is designed to protect GPS- and GNSS-dependent devices from jamming, spoofing, and other interference. Measuring 8 by 8 mm and weighing less than 0.2 g, the chip delivers cryptographically secure timing and location data via one-way signal bursts from the Iridium satellite network — strong enough to function inside structures and in contested environments where traditional GNSS signals often fail.
Organizations expressing interest since the chip’s preview span maritime, unmanned and autonomous systems, aviation, telecommunications and other critical infrastructure sectors.
“Assured PNT is becoming an essential capability across critical industries,” said Michael O’Connor, Ph.D., executive vice president of PNT at Iridium. “With commercial availability, we’re enabling manufacturers to integrate trusted timing and location capabilities into smaller, more efficient designs.”
Beyond navigation, Iridium is positioning the chip as a timing solution for financial markets, power grids and telecommunications networks that depend on precise time synchronization.
The launch comes as GPS jamming and spoofing incidents continue to increase. A May 2026 in-flight jamming event affecting U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey drew renewed attention to GNSS vulnerability in commercial aviation and transportation. A 2019 NIST-sponsored study estimated a GPS outage would cost the U.S. economy roughly $1 billion per day — a figure Iridium calculates would exceed $1.3 billion daily in 2026 dollars.
Early integrations
Solace Communications is incorporating the ASIC into its Vector assured PNT product line, which pairs Iridium PNT with multi-band GNSS and inertial sensing. The platform provides continuous confidence scoring alongside secure telemetry via LTE and Iridium Short Burst Data.
“Future navigation systems must do more than report a position,” said Adam Elcock, co-founder of Solace Communications. “They must continuously determine whether that position and its timing can be trusted.”
Skyband Systems plans to integrate the chip into its M100 line replaceable unit for business and commercial aviation, combining Iridium PNT with onboard inertial sensing to alert flight crews to jamming and spoofing events.
“Iridium’s secure and powerful global service is the perfect platform for Skyband’s resilient navigation product,” said Robert Wiggenhorn, co-founder of Skyband Systems.
Ordering information is available at iridium.com/pnt/asic.
