Last week the Royal Academy of Engineering released a report entitled ‘Global Navigation Space Systems: reliance and vulnerabilities’. The report addresses the problem of the widespread use, without tried and tested backup systems, of satellite navigation systems for business and leisure but also for life saving applications such as the emergency services and air and sea control.

The author describes the range of the current applications for this technology before looking at its vulnerabilities and resilience to both natural and deliberate or accidental disruption, and the possible effects upon society of its partial or total failure.

The conclusion and recommendations offer food for thought for users, providers and policy makers, and the annexes paint an interesting picture of how readily jamming technology is available today via the Internet and an outline for a possible jamming trial that would help users understand and prepare for problems caused by a system breakdown.

The report is freely available to download here.