Navy-Backed Test Advances GPS Alternative for Jammed Environments

TrustPoint and Hexagon’s NovAtel have demonstrated that an enhanced commercial receiver can acquire and process TrustPoint’s C-band navigation signals when conventional satellite navigation faces interference.

The Navy-backed test advances the company’s effort to provide an independent source of positioning, navigation and timing—commonly called PNT—for military and civilian users when GPS becomes unreliable.

Patrick Shannon, TrustPoint’s founder and CEO, told Military.com in an interview that the demonstration addressed a critical issue every new PNT system eventually faces: how to get new navigation signals into hardware that can actually use them.

Building a Commercial Alternative to GPS

Shannon began his career building satellites for defense and intelligence missions after studying aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.

He later worked in business development and program execution for commercial satellite companies, including Astro Digital. He said those experiences showed him that companies were rapidly changing satellite communications, Earth observation and launch services while comparatively little innovation occurred aboard navigation satellites.

TrustPoint, founded in 2020, is developing what Shannon described as a commercially owned and operated alternative to GPS.

Instead of replacing GPS outright, TrustPoint wants its service to operate as a separate “co-primary” system that users can employ alongside GPS or fall back on when GPS is jammed, spoofed or otherwise unavailable.

“We like to think of ourselves as a complementary system,” Shannon said. “GPS is not going anywhere. But TrustPoint is coming in with a very different breed, a different flavor of GPS. It’s fully independent.”

TrustPoint has launched three demonstration satellites, including its Time Flies spacecraft in June 2025. The company received a $4 million SpaceWERX contract in May to deploy four additional satellites and four ground stations for an end-to-end PNT demonstration.

Shannon said TrustPoint expects to launch those satellites by the first quarter of 2027.

How the C-Band System Works

GPS satellites continuously broadcast messages containing their location and precise time.

A receiver compares when those signals were transmitted with when they arrived, allowing it to calculate its distance from multiple satellites and determine its position. The receiver listens but does not transmit information back to the constellation.

“It’s a broadcast-only service,” Shannon said. “Your device does not talk to the GPS constellation.”

TrustPoint follows the same general model, but its planned constellation would place hundreds of small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) and transmit navigation signals in the 5,010-to-5,030 MHz portion of C-band.

GPS satellites operate approximately 20,200 kilometers, or 12,550 miles, above Earth in medium Earth orbit (MEO). TrustPoint’s satellites operate at roughly 600 kilometers, bringing the transmitters much closer to receivers on the ground.

“By moving to lower orbit, we unlocked using C-band for GNSS,” Shannon said.

Most existing GPS signals use L-band frequencies. TrustPoint argues that moving to C-band provides frequency diversity, meaning interference aimed at conventional GPS frequencies would not automatically disrupt TrustPoint’s signal. The company also says the higher frequency could support smaller sophisticated antennas and anti-jam equipment.

The system would not be immune to electronic attack. An adversary could target C-band as well, but C-band carries inherent anti-jam and anti-spoof characteristics, making denial much more difficult.

What the NAVAIR Demonstration Proved

The demonstration grew from a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project administered through Naval Air Systems Command.

The government’s public award description called for a commercial prototype receiver and multi-element C-band antenna capable of providing time and position without GPS during L-band jamming or spoofing.

NovAtel engineers adapted an existing receiver design rather than creating a completely new platform. Shannon said the modifications included a C-band antenna, an updated radio-frequency front end with appropriate amplifiers and filters, and software and firmware changes.

“The modifications were pretty modest,” Shannon said. “They could get an antenna built very quickly. They could get an RF front end with the amplifier and filters built really quickly.”

The result does not mean military units can activate TrustPoint on their current receivers through only a software update. Users would need hardware capable of receiving C-band.

The demonstration instead showed that manufacturers can add the capability to an established receiver architecture using commercially available components.

Shannon said NovAtel conducted a live-sky test in December 2025, taking the receiver outside and acquiring a TrustPoint signal from space in real time. The partners also tested the receiver in a simulated electronic warfare environment using what Shannon characterized as early, baseline anti-jam performance conditions.

TrustPoint calls the work an industry first because commercial vendors do not currently sell C-band global navigation satellite system receivers, and the test paired a live signal from space with an adapted platform from an established receiver manufacturer.

NovAtel already produces high-precision receivers and anti-jam systems for land, maritime and airborne applications.

“Nobody today is selling C-band GNSS receivers,” Shannon said. “But as this contract shows, that is rapidly changing, and soon you’ll be able to go online and buy one.”

Shannon said the next step is working with NovAtel and other partners to turn the receiver architecture into equipment customers can purchase. TrustPoint must also deploy enough satellites and ground infrastructure to provide useful coverage beyond limited demonstrations.

“The technology risk has been brought down,” Shannon said. “Now it’s more about packaging” and determining how to bring the product to market.

Extending Resilient Navigation Beyond the Battlefield

The military has invested heavily in stronger encrypted GPS signals and alternative PNT technologies because jamming can block legitimate signals while spoofing can feed a receiver false location or timing information.

Civilian transportation and critical infrastructure face the same vulnerabilities. Federal policy directs agencies to develop alternative PNT sources for critical infrastructure and mission-essential functions.

Shannon said TrustPoint designed its system for military operations, autonomous vehicles, drones and infrastructure that cannot safely stop functioning when GPS disappears.

“Electronic warfare does not respect boundaries,” Shannon said. “In addition to the war fighter, we need to bring resilient PNT to every community on the planet.”