Resilient Positioning, Navigation, and Timing

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Protecting mission-critical technology in all domains

Defense forces must be ready to operate anywhere, anytime, and often under very challenging conditions—including in contested environments. That means major weapons systems and platforms like aircraft, space systems, and autonomous vehicles must resist complex threats that could compromise their mission.

One common attack vector is to target critical enablers such as positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities. This type of attack is also relevant for the nation's critical infrastructure, including electric utilities, telecommunications networks, transportation systems, and financial institutions.

Just as defense forces must achieve success in the battlespace, federal and privately owned and operated critical infrastructure must perform national functions to keep society running—without fail. Mission and business outcomes depend more and more on resilience at the intersection of cyber and physical systems within operational technologies.

However, most warfighters, program managers, and C-suite executives aren’t fully aware how much their system security depends on protecting their access to trusted and assured PNT, and their organizations aren’t positioned to proactively and gracefully manage the risk of a PNT failure.

Vital to U.S. National Security

In fact, ubiquitous PNT capabilities like the Global Positioning System (GPS) are increasingly in danger of being disrupted by jamming and spoofing. These capabilities could also be compromised by system-level disruptions caused by cyber attacks and supply chain threats, as well as human error.

All in all, the resiliency of PNT is vital to U.S. national and economic security. That is why we help our clients implement federal guidance such as Space Policy Directive 7 (SPD-7), which builds on PNT executive order 13905, and use resources like the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s PNT profile, which is tied to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. And the importance of PNT will only grow as fifth-generation (5G) mobile technology expands connectivity of sensors and systems worldwide.

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Securing PNT within Critical Systems

Reliable access to resilient positioning, navigation and timing, or PNT, is paramount to everyday civilian life and military operations. Read More

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The Intersection of Cyber and Physical Systems

At Booz Allen, we develop world-class solutions for PNT resilience. Our solutions assess and harden system security at the often-overlooked intersection of cyber and physical systems. We secure not only data and networks, but also weapons systems, space systems, industrial control systems, medical devices, autonomous vehicles, mobile technology, and cloud-based systems. We use advanced digital engineering, model-based systems engineering (MBSE), digital twins, and cyber-physical test beds to drive resilience and security into operational technology platforms in all domains

We apply strong expertise in engineering and actionable insights around the latest threats and vulnerabilities. What’s more, we also bring a deep understanding of national security missions and critical business functions. We help clients solve the right problems based on their priorities.

Our PNT security solutions enable organizations to improve resilience and responsiveness in the face of emerging threats. Our approach includes:

Vulnerability discovery and threat mitigation using digital twins and cyber-physical test beds
System resilience and trust using artificial intelligence/machine learning
Integrated solutions to implement PNT resilience consistent with federal policy and guidance

The White House, Congress, the Department of Defense, and the private sector are focusing more attention on PNT resilience. Booz Allen helps agency and business leaders understand how to interpret policy and improve risk management.

As a trusted space partner to the U.S. government, Booz Allen helps clients modernize capabilities for today’s greatest space challenges:

Weaponization of space: The U.S. must stay ahead of adversaries threatening space systems critical to our nation’s security, commerce, and way of life.
Addressing climate change: Space-based earth observation is essential to research.
Congestion: Tracking and protecting space assets is critical as satellite constellations grow exponentially.

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