Online Exclusive: Faux Signals for Real Results

Image: Safran Federal Systems (formerly Orolia Defense & Security)

As the number of constellations, satellites, and signals has grown in recent years — especially in the past few years, with the completion of the BeiDou and Galileo constellations — simulator manufacturers have been challenged to keep up. Threats of jamming and spoofing also increased. Then, a few companies began to develop new positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) constellations in low-Earth orbit (LEO).

For the August 2023 cover story, I discussed these challenges and the prospect for the simulation industry with representatives of six companies: Safran Federal Systems (formerly Orolia Defense & Security), Racelogic, CAST Navigation, IFEN, Spirent Communications and Spirent Federal Systems.

Due to the limited space available in print, I was able to use only used a small portion of the interviews I conducted for our August cover story. For full transcripts of them see below:

• Full interview with Tim Erbes, Technical Director, Safran Federal Systems (formerly Orolia Defense & Security).
• Full interview with Julian Thomas, Managing Director, Racelogic.
• Full interview with Jürgen Pielmeier, Managing Director, IFEN.
• Full interview with Mark Holbrow, VP of Product Development, Spirent Communications and Roger Hart, Sr. Director of Engineering, Spirent Federal Systems.