DOD Awards Contract to Orbital Insight for GNSS Disruption Detection Platform

The Department of Defense has awarded Orbital Insight a contract to provide a platform that can detect attempts to disrupt Global Navigation Satellite Systems operations.

Orbital Insight said the technology will use commercially available data to identify attempts at spoofing, where an adversary falsifies GNSS signals. The technique is commonly used to hide illegal activities or sabotage operations, Orbital Insight said Thursday.

The company cited research by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a nonprofit research organization, showing that Russia performed nearly 10,000 spoofing operations between 2016 and 2018. Russia’s alleged spoofing attempts affected more than 1,300 civilian vessel navigation systems across 10 locations, C4ADS’ report read.

According to Orbital Insight, its platform takes advantage of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data from multiple sensors to spot spoofing.

The technology also uses information from satellites, automatic identification systems, aircraft surveillance, internet of things devices as well as research intelligence from the C4ADS, the company said.

Orbital Insight added that its platform can be used for more than just situational awareness of interference, highlighting applications in humanitarian and environmental challenges such as detecting drug trafficking, illegal fishing, piracy and disruption of commercial aviation.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Orbital Insight is a geospatial analytics company that provides insight into supply chains, global commodities and national security.

In December 2021, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency awarded Orbital Insight a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contract to develop an object detection computer vision model that can help synthetically train AI algorithms.