U.S. Army Interested in eLoran PNT for the Warfighter

The United States Army is soliciting information for eLoran receivers for the warfighter, either stand-alone or integrated with GPS.

The Jan. 14 Request for Information (RFI) provides an outline for the potential use of the receivers in Army and other Department of Defense (DoD) maritime, aviation, or vehicular platforms and for position and timing purposes.

“As part of the Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing (APNT), program effort, the Army is investigating the potential benefits from utilizing eLORAN ‘signals of opportunity’ to aid in developing PNT solutions for the warfighter. Thus, the Army is interested in leveraging the recent technology development efforts in the industry mainly for adding eLoran capabilities into Army APNT solutions,” the RFI reads.

Primary technical areas the Army is interested in include the receiver specifications; its use for maritime, aviation, vehicles, and timing; SWaP-C considerations for an integrated GPS and eLoran receiver; potential benefits of one-way messaging capabilities using the eLORAN data channel; signal tracking where GPS is unavailable (indoors, under water, in urban environments); and how quickly a demonstration could be held.

The assumption is for an order quantity of 50,000 units after a five-year development effort. The Army hopes to determine industry interest in developing such a receiver if the DOD “were to consider eLoran as a PNT source/signal of opportunity.”

For more information and full details, see the RFI here.