The UK government has unveiled a £155 million investment package to harden the country’s Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) infrastructure, backing a mix of terrestrial, satellite-independent, and monitoring capabilities aimed at reducing dependence on vulnerable GNSS signals.
Announced by Science Minister Lord Vallance at the Royal Institute of Navigation’s PNT Leadership Seminar, the funding is framed explicitly as both a national security measure and an enabler for economic growth in high-tech sectors such as AI, data, and advanced communications.
The new package comes amid growing evidence of GNSS jamming and spoofing in and around conflict zones, notably following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and against a backdrop of concern over the impact of solar flares and other natural disruptions on satellite-based services.
PNT as critical national infrastructure
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) underscored how deeply embedded PNT has become in everyday life and critical infrastructure—stretching well beyond in-car Sat Nav into finance, telecommunications and national infrastructure operations. The UK government cites prior research estimating that a 24-hour outage of satellite navigation services could cost the UK economy about £1.4 billion.
Science Minister Lord Vallance highlighted the degree to which modern society depends on precise positioning and timing, noting that “so many of the things we take for granted every day, from using our phones to planning a journey, simply couldn’t happen without it.”
The investment is positioned as the next major step in implementing the UK’s 2023 Government Policy Framework for Greater Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) Resilience and is being led through the National PNT Office within DSIT.
Four-part package: eLoran, timing, interference monitoring and space-based time transfer
The £155 million package is divided across four main initiatives that together aim to provide alternative PNT sources, strengthen national time infrastructure, and create a more detailed operational picture of GNSS threats.
1. £71 million for a national eLoran program
The largest single tranche, £71 million, will initiate work on a UK National Enhanced Long-Range Navigation (eLoran) program. The goal is to provide PNT coverage across land, air and sea using low-frequency terrestrial signals that are independent of GNSS and inherently harder to jam or spoof due to their high power and propagation characteristics.
The government describes eLoran as a cornerstone of resilient PNT infrastructure, and notes that British industry—through companies such as Roke—is already advancing ultra-compact eLoran antenna and receiver technologies that could be deployed at scale.
2. £68 million for the National Timing Centre (NTC)
A further £68 million will support continued development of the National Timing Centre program, led by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). The NTC is tasked with delivering the UK’s first nationally distributed timing infrastructure, ensuring that precise, traceable time is available across the country without sole reliance on GNSS.
Beyond resilience, DSIT links this investment to enabling emerging use cases in 5G and beyond-5G communications, satellite communications, and autonomous and self-driving vehicles, all of which depend on accurate and robust timing for synchronization and safety.
3. £13 million for GNSS interference monitoring
Another £13 million is earmarked for a UK GNSS interference monitoring program. The goal is to build a “world-leading capability” to detect, characterize and respond to jamming and spoofing threats across the UK, providing earlier warning and better situational awareness for government, critical infrastructure operators and potentially commercial users.
The program aligns with recommendations from the UN’s International Committee on GNSS, which has urged member states to consider developing ground-based PNT interference early-warning systems.
4. £3 million for space-based time transfer R&D
The remaining £3 million will fund research and development into space-based time transfer capabilities that can deliver global timing independent of GPS and other GNSS constellations.
By diversifying timing sources, the UK aims to ensure that critical time-sensitive services—ranging from financial trading platforms to telecom networks—are not tied to a single satellite infrastructure or provider.
Building on policy, partnerships and a “system of systems” approach
Today’s announcement is being presented as the latest milestone in what has been a particularly active period for UK PNT policy and international engagement.
In 2024–2025, the UK government:
- Agreed to cooperate more closely with both the United States and France on PNT resilience under the UK–US Technology Prosperity Deal and at the UK–France Summit.
- Launched a Call for Evidence on PNT growth, gathering feedback on the UK PNT market, research landscape, barriers to commercialization and adoption.
- Continued to support the Royal Institute of Navigation in providing technical guidance, best practices and skills development across the PNT ecosystem.
The funding also follows the 2023 PNT Policy Framework, which set out the UK’s intent to treat PNT as critical national infrastructure, develop complementary and backup capabilities, and engage industry more systematically via the National PNT Office.
For the GNSS community, the package underscores a “system of systems” approach: rather than replacing satellite navigation, the UK is layering terrestrial, monitoring and space-based timing capabilities on top of existing GNSS services such as GPS and Galileo to manage risk and improve assurance.
Industry and expert reaction
The announcement drew strong backing from UK navigation, geospatial and space industry leaders, who framed the decision as both overdue and strategically important.
The Royal Institute of Navigation called the £155 million commitment a significant step toward strengthening protection against PNT disruptions and pledged to continue providing independent expertise and guidance as government and industry work together on implementation and long-term planning.
Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency, stressed that resilient PNT is essential for both economic success and national security, and welcomed the “clear direction” the investment provides for the UK’s positioning infrastructure and services.
From the industrial side, the PNT Committee of UKspace and techUK framed the initiatives as vital to ensuring continuity of “life as we know it” in the face of GNSS disruption, while at the same time deepening collaboration between DSIT’s National PNT Office and the UK PNT industry—a relationship that has intensified since the 2023 policy framework was published.
Roke, a key player in eLoran technology, described the decision to fund a national eLoran program as a landmark move that both safeguards critical services and reinforces the UK’s claim to global leadership in resilient PNT.
Implications for global GNSS resilience
The UK package is noteworthy on several fronts:
- It signals a major European economy committing serious money to a multi-layered PNT resilience architecture that explicitly includes non-GNSS options such as eLoran and space-based time transfer.
- It integrates interference monitoring as a national-level capability, in line with evolving international recommendations on GNSS threat detection.
- It ties PNT resilience not only to security and defense, but also to innovation in AI, communications, and autonomy—areas where precise positioning and timing are fundamental.
