The world’s economic, security and defence reliance on position, navigation and timing (PNT) is long-established. The threats to the ubiquitous use of GPS and other global navigation satellite system (GNSS) services, especially jamming and spoofing, are becoming increasingly prevalent and reported. Where GNSS disruptions were once rare events, they now occur regularly throughout the world especially in regional conflicts. They also threaten critical national infrastructure (CNI) and commercial services on which we all rely.
In Defence, the UK and its allies rely heavily on PNT for effective military operations, however GNSS signals can be jammed or spoofed by adversaries. A jammed or faked satellite navigation signal, if undetected or uncorrected, can result in misdirected troop movements or incorrectly guided missile trajectories, leading to mission failure in the battlefield arena.
For governments, the need for assured PNT ripples across a vast range of CNI and services that underpin many everyday activities in modern society including transport, telecommunications, utilities, financial services, IT services, emergency services and personal navigation.
QinetiQ is taking a lead role in the delivery of Assured PNT across defence, security and CNI, both for the UK and across the world.
Enhanced Long Range Navigation (eLoran)
Weaknesses in GNSS are being continuously and frequently exploited and it is essential that complementary Alternative PNT (AltPNT) techniques are developed to ensure PNT remains secure.
There are a number of AltPNT techniques that are being developed to dilute military and society’s reliance on GNSS as the sole source of PNT. In the UK, and across an increasing number of nations, there is strong interest in making use of eLoran.
eLoran provides a terrestrial-based, high-power alternative to GNSS, offering a resilient backup and reference for critical missions and national infrastructure. Its low-frequency signals are over one million times stronger than GNSS at the receiver, making them virtually immune to jamming or spoofing.
For military use, eLoran can provide PNT in GNSS degraded and GNSS-denied environments, penetrating buildings, underground areas, and dense urban terrain. For national infrastructure, eLoran delivers precise, nanosecond-level timing essential for telecommunications, financial trading, and power grids, protecting sovereign services from space, weather or adversarial cyber-physical disruption.
Team Elaris
In 2025, QinetiQ established Team Elaris comprising QinetiQ, UrsaNav, Roke and GMV.
Led by QinetiQ, Team Elaris is a world-class team with highly relevant experience and specialist expertise in eLoran, PNT, security, complex system integration and delivery of national/international critical services. Team Elaris can address all aspects of deployable, tactical and fixed eLoran requirements and deliver Secure By Design, resilient, high integrity and high availability solutions.
Team Elaris includes UrsaNav, with unrivalled experience in delivering operational eLoran solutions globally. Together with the expertise of the other Team Elaris partners, this collective world-class experience ensures that our eLoran solutions are not only the highest performing but delivered with the lowest technical risk.
Team Elaris has a flexible approach to local infrastructure and facility requirements and is constructed to address international markets.
