America Needs an Alternative to GPS. So, Why Aren’t We Developing One?

The Global Position System (GPS) is now embedded in practically every device Americans use, from computers to phones to cars. Millions of people use it every day for travel. Parents are increasingly using it to track their children and pets. And America’s military relies upon it for everything from missile targeting to tank transport to drone piloting.

This did not happen by accident. By and large, GPS is an extremely reliable technology. But it can also fail, is easily spoofable, and is already being surpassed by our adversaries. In 2022, a random GPS outage forced all airplanes away from a 40-mile swath near the Dallas airport; the cause remains unknown, although researchers have determined it was a complex jamming operation. In the early 2010s, Iran may have stolen an American drone via GPS spoofing. It is still unclear exactly how they did it, though Iran unquestionably engages in spoofing operations. The Russo-Ukrainian War, for its part, is rife with examples of how GPS can be blocked or spoofed. 

As for being surpassed? China’s BeiDou, an alternative navigation system, is now expanding to more countries. And while China’s boasting sometimes obscures its technology’s actual capabilities, the system is likely more accurate than GPS. There are major drawbacks, obviously—namely the fact that the Chinese government likely has backdoors—but seeing how willing most governments were to set up official TikTok accounts, that fact will probably not concern most outside of Washington and Western Europe.

Read more in The National Interest.