The Department of Transportation has awarded contracts to nine companies that will provide the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center with commercial complementary positioning, navigation and timing technologies to be subjected to field test trials.
During the tests, the Volpe Center will deploy the CPNT technologies in nominal as well as challenging conditions, evaluate them and use the resulting data in research work for the promotion of CPNT service adoption, according to a solicitation posted on SAM.gov.
CPNTs are envisioned as complementary services to be deployed in the event of disruption of conventional PNT capabilities, like the Global Positioning System, according to the DOT’s Complementary PNT Action Plan.
Karen Van Dyke, director for positioning, navigation and timing & spectrum management at the DOT’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research & Technology, said in an interview with Inside GNSS that the aim of the field trials is to get CPNT “thoroughly tested” so that its limits and vulnerabilities can be “well understood” before the agency can recommend its use.
The following are the awardees and the value of their contracts:
- NextNav – $1.8M
- Carahsoft Technology – $1.5M
- Microsemi Frequency and Time Corp. – $1.4M
- Parsons Government Services – $132,416
- Hoptroff – $934,076
- Locata – $778,630
- Safran Trusted 4D – $245,300
- NAL Research- $144,599
- Tern AI – $51,780