It involves the creation of our new National PNT Office, an updated PNT Crisis Plan to be activated if Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) providing PNT were lost, a proposal to develop the National Timing Centre (NTC), the development of a ‘Ministry of Defence Time’ system of last resort, and a number of other measures (see below).
The Government also announced a re-allocated £14m of existing funding to an NTC R&D programme.
“Enhancing our PNT resilience and long-term capabilities is key to both Critical National Infrastructure, our economic security and resilience and strategic high growth sectors like space, future telecoms, quantum and cyber security,” said Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, George Freeman MP.
Alongside the PNT framework, the government published research estimating the economic impact on the UK if the GNSS were to be disrupted. It found that a 24-hour outage could result in a £1.4 billion loss to the UK economy, with a 7-day outage costing the economy £7.6 billion.
Ten point plan
The ten points the government is working towards implementing are (in its own words):
- National PNT Office: establish a National PNT Office in the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology – to improve resilience and drive growth with responsibility for PNT policy, coordination, and delivery.
- PNT Crisis Plan: retain and update a cross-government PNT Crisis Plan to be activated if Global Navigation Satellite Systems provided PNT is lost and identify and implement short term mitigations.
- National Timing Centre: develop a proposal for a National Timing Centre – to provide resilient, terrestrial, sovereign, and high-quality timing for the UK (UTC(NPL)), including sovereign components and optical clocks.
- ‘MOD Time’: develop a proposal for ‘Ministry of Defence Time’ creating deeper resilience through a system of last resort and use National Timing Centre provided timing to support the Ministry of Defence.
- eLORAN (Enhanced Long-Range Navigation): develop a proposal for a resilient, terrestrial, and sovereign Enhanced Long-Range Navigation system to provide backup Position and Navigation.
- Infrastructure Resilience: rollout resilient GNSS receiver chips, develop holdover clocks, and consider options for legislation on CNI sectors to require minimum resilient PNT.
- UK SBAS: develop a proposal for a UK Precise Point Positioning Satellite-Based Augmentation System to replace the UK’s use of the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service, monitor GNSS and enable GNSS dependent high accuracy Position for autonomous and precision uses.
- PNT Skills: explore options for Centres for Doctoral Training in timing and PNT and review PNT skills, education, and training for long term sovereign PNT capability.
- Growth Policy: develop a PNT growth policy, including R&D programmes, standards and testing, to drive innovation for PNT based productivity.
- Next Generation PNT: deploy existing R&D funding into a UK Quantum Navigator and investigate possible options for a UK sovereign regional satellite system.
NPL
NPL, the UK’s technical authority for time and frequency, said it welcomed the UK Government’s policy, to help tackle the risks associated with PNT.
It said that the NPL and government partners are “developing a resilient UK national time infrastructure through the building and linking of a new atomic clock network distributed geographically in secure locations”.
The aim is for this to form the source of resilient time for the UK. It will provide traceable signals into distribution systems such as a terrestrial eLORAN (as mentioned above) to provide backup PNT or even the ground segment of a UK space asset, strengthening existing infrastructure resilience. For long term PNT resilience it is crucial that we develop our sovereign capabilities, including infrastructure, supply chain and skills pipeline.
“NPL’s National Timing Centre (NTC) research and development programme, developed in collaboration with innovators across the UK, is demonstrating the concept of a resilient timing infrastructure,” said Dr Pete Thompson, CEO of NPL. “Running until March 2025, the programme is the precursor to, and key building block of, developing a National Timing Centre, as outlined at point three of the Policy Framework.”
Image: HM Government
