GNSS technology has been used in Defence & Security applications for many years; areas such as the traditional military uses within avionics and other guidance systems, personal warfighter and convoy navigation to asset tracking and rescue. In partnership with industry leading suppliers, Chronos offers the following solutions:

Sophisticated GNSS Simulator

The expansion of GNSS constellations and satellite based augmentations systems provides more options as well as more complexity than ever before. More constellations, more frequencies, more modulations and more codes are making the development of tomorrow’s receiver tests a very demanding task. Chronos has partnered with Syntony who specialises in sophisticated GNSS simulators used in the aerospace and defence industries for product testing.

Syntony’s Constellator has been designed to test receivers, from performing fair weather tests to being subject receivers to sub-optimal conditions, extreme situations and combinations of errors difficult to access in real world tests

GPS / GNSS Repeating (or Retransmission)

A GPS repeater can be installed inside an aircraft hangar / MRO facility; inside the aircraft itself or even inside a vehicle when mobile warfighters are being deployed. GNSS or GPS Repeating is the technique by which live GNSS signals are made available to the (primarily) mobile devices within the location.

Chronos Technology has been providing a full GPS repeating service from designing the layout and implementation of the solution to comprehensive after-sales support for over 20 years for a range of military applications such as:

• Hangar systems for the Royal Air Force
• Portable & fixed systems for within Military transport aircraft (C-130 Hercules, C117 Globemaster, CH47 Chinook)
• Intra-vehicle systems for troop ground transportation systems
• Portable GNSS systems for Special Forces

These type of systems are also applicable to applications such as Military Free Fall, High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) and High Altitude High Opening (HAHO) as the equipment each unit carries must have continuous availability and not lose satellite signal visibility from being in the aircraft.

Benefits of GNSS repeating for Military applications are:

• Eliminates delay in TTFF when exiting the hangar, aircraft or vehicle
• Maintains Situational Awareness (SA) with valid location reporting, even from inside vehicles
• Reduces mobile device battery consumption as no reacquisition processing required
• Full verification of position (inc altitude) prior to a jump
• Eliminates need to maintain equipment out of protective hangar/maintenance unit, covert installation with the ability for fully test
• Maintains equipment in “hot” condition for units on immediate alert status

Timing

GNSS systems are often also used to provide timing for communications systems in a Military environment as this enables efficient and cost effective network synchronisation to be able to provide secure voice and data communications.

Defence & Security GNSS Infrastructure

GNSS RF Signal distribution in Military environments often has to meet specific, exacting and exhaustive standards such as MIL-STD-461 (Control of electromagnetic interference) which means equipment must undergo rigorous testing to ensure it meets these standards. Other infrastructure concerns are that in some locations the use of copper as the RF transport mechanism is not possible, perhaps due to classification of an enclave. In these cases RF over Fibre solutions can be used to ensure that the GNSS receiver is able to use live GPS without compromising any security aspects, important in Military or other agency installations.

Security Related Products

Chronos Technology works with a number of Defence & Security organisations globally to provide Homeland Security related products, in addition to the Defence/Military focussed products described above. Chronos designs and manufactures handheld GPS interference detection products CTL3510 and CTL3520.  These handheld GPS interference monitors are designed to detect the presence of too much GPS satellite power or interference broadcasting on the satellite navigation L1 channel, which could indicate inadvertent interference or intentional electronic warfare attacks intended to jam GPS signals.  In addition, CTL3520 uses innovative direction finding technology developed by the University of Bath to accurately determine which vehicle or individual is hosting the jammer. Fully tested at the MIRA large screened chamber facility, representatives of Law Enforcement and Security agencies were able to correctly identify which vehicle or person was carrying the jammer.

• Monitoring, detecting and locating GPS interference
• Ideal for operations and support engineers to check GPS antenna installations
• Check your roof-top installations for interference from other sources and adjacent GPS antenna
• Check you are not accidentally rebroadcasting the GPS signal from a poorly made or corroded cable/connector/antenna assembly