Editor's note: This story was updated at 3:15 p.m. Jan. 18, 2007. Please go to Corrections & Clarifications to see what has changed.
A United Kingdom-based agency plans to buy a navigation system to serve as a backup for satellite-based technology, such as the Global Positioning System, putting pressure on the United States to follow suit, according to navigation industry consultants and vendors.
Trinity House, a U.K. organization that provides marine aides to navigation in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, issued a request for proposals last week for an enhanced long-range radio navigation (eLoran) system. Loran provides highly accurate location information without depending on satellite signals, which are subject to jamming or disruption.
The agency asked interested bidders to submit proposals by Jan. 6, 2007, for continuation of ongoing eLoran tests with plans to transition that test system into the U.K. component of an operational European eLoran service.
The United States needs a similar backup system to provide an alternative to GPS for air and marine navigation and for communications networks that rely on GPS timing signals, these vendors and consultants said.
A Transportation Department spokesman said officials from DOT and the Homeland Security Department are working on a backup system for GPS, which includes eLoran and a final decision is due soon but declined to provide a time frame. Navigation industry executives expect an eLoran decision from DOT and DHS by the end of this year.
Loran stations house two low-frequency transmitters, which send time difference signals. Receivers determine their location based on the time difference of the signals received from the two transmitters. The U.S. Loran system covers all coastal waters in the lower 48 states and parts of Alaska. The United Kingdom has one Loran station and there are seven others in Europe.
eLoran systems gain enhanced accuracy through the use of differential correction systems well-established in GPS and the ability of receivers to tap into signals from multiple stations, which also improves accuracy and timing information.
Mike Harrison, a consultant in the Washington, D.C., area who helped write a white paper by Aviation Management Associates for the Federal Aviation Administration on GPS backup systems said the U.K. decision to go ahead with an eLoran backup as "sends a very strong signal to the U.S to go ahead" with its own eLoran system, which Aviation Management urged in its FAA report.
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