Resilience–broadly, the ability to readily recover from external disturbances–seems likely to become the next buzzword in aviation’s lexicon. It is gaining acceptance primarily to describe a future world air navigation system’s resistance to interruptions and outright signal loss, to provide pilots with essential, unfailing position, navigation and timing (PNT) data. Resilience came to the fore at a February conference on GNSS vulnerability, sponsored by the UK Institute of Navigation.
“PNT service has become a worldwide utility–thanks to GPS,” pointed out keynote speaker Dr. Brad Parkinson, known as “the father of GPS” for his earlier leadership as a USAF Colonel in the system’s development. In fact, he added, “PNT service is now worth billions of dollars a year, yet taken for granted. On the other hand, this service is potentially threatened by jamming and related threats. I subscribe to PTA–protect, toughen and augment–this valuable asset. Particularly appealing is the use of eLoran to augment or serve as a stand-alone service. In this role, eLoran would be a powerful deterrent to malicious interference.”
