Cyber Defense eMagazine March Edition for 2022

Formerly known as LOng-RAnge Navigation (LORAN), eLORAN is “enhanced” to provide
accurate time and geolocation data whereas LORAN originally only provided approximate
location information. eLORAN is a modern digital system, which builds on proven analog radio
frequency technologies such as Loran-C. eLORAN can provide robust and accurate position,
navigation and time data across any desired area of the Earth. It can be received in many indoor
and subsurface locations whereas GPS generally requires an unobstructed view of the sky. This
makes eLORAN receiver installations less visible and thus more easily secured.
Today’s eLORAN systems transmit signals that are three to five million times stronger than
GPS/GNSS and have 99.999% availability and reliability. Each tower has up to a 1,200-mile
signal range. Its spectrum of 90-110 kHz is internationally protected, and eLORAN is deployable
rapidly, so military branches can quickly set up systems anywhere in the world.
An eLORAN system designed to cover the contiguous United States requires only a handful of
towers are for mission critical timing applications. Less than 2 dozen high-power transmission
sites are needed for full CONUS position and navigation capability.
eLORAN is a practical solution that is too often underestimated by planners and analysts, many
of whom are not familiar with modern eLORAN. They know GPS is vulnerable but may not be
aware of recent advancements that make eLORAN practical, affordable and deployable now.
Fortunately, there is a renewed and growing national consensus that the deployment of eLORAN
must be accelerated to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure that is increasingly and solely
dependent on GPS. Companies such as ours, with a tradition of innovation and RF leadership,
have spearheaded development of the latest generation of this technology. Through these
efforts many of the past cost and technological constraints, such as land area needed for
eLORAN transmission towers, have been overcome. Today’s fully digital eLORAN systems
reduce antenna tower height by half and the necessary land area by 75%. Making eLORAN
system planning and deployment much simpler at a time when the world needs the more resilient
and independent solution eLORAN provides.
For America and our allies, eLORAN is a necessary and fundamental “fail safe” at a critical time.
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