Beating the jammers: Australian tech gives warfighters precision in GPS blackouts

Advanced Navigation’s inertial-centric intelligence has succeeded in achieving navigation in GNSS-denied environment tests.

Australian company Advanced Navigation has successfully demonstrated its inertial-centric intelligent navigation as part of the US Army’s All-Domain Persistent Experiment (APEX), showing the company’s technology has the ability to provide reliable, high-accuracy navigation in GNSS-degraded and -denied conditions.

Designed for the DDIL (Degraded, Denied, Intermittent and Low-bandwidth), APEX provided Advanced Navigation with an operationally relevant testbed to evaluate the performance of its Boreas D90 Fibre-Optic Gyroscope (FOG) Inertial Navigation System (INS) when fused with complementary aiding sensors, including the Laser Velocity Sensor (LVS) and a wheel speed encoder.

During APEX, Boreas D90 with AdNav Intelligence was integrated with both an LVS and a wheel speed encoder aboard a four-wheel-drive vehicle. The demonstration was conducted during night operations at a site in rural New Mexico, USA, at which the organisers created an environment of complex and emerging electronic warfare threats by conducting GNSS jamming.

For operations requiring extreme accuracy and dynamic performance, Boreas D90 was fused with LVS, Advanced Navigation’s infrared laser sensor that measures ground-relative 3D velocity with high precision. LVS performs reliably on both ground and airborne platforms regardless of environmental conditions or the availability of visual references, as long as it maintains a clear line of sight to the ground or a stationary surface. By providing direct, drift-free velocity measurements, LVS helps ensure continuous, high-precision mobility and enhances navigation resilience even in the most extreme contested GNSS environments.

Unlike conventional systems reliant on GNSS or magnetic compasses, Boreas D90 determines true north through gyrocompassing, using ultra-sensitive fibre-optic gyroscopes to detect the Earth’s rotation. This enables independent, high-confidence navigation, even when external GNSS signals are compromised.

“In today’s contested environment, the adversary will deny, degrade and spoof GNSS signals. Relying on a single technology for navigation is a mission-ending vulnerability,” said Chris Shaw, Advanced Navigation CEO, “Assured PNT is non-negotiable. The only path to operational advantage is an intelligent, multi-sensor fusion anchored by a resilient inertial core. We deliver this with our sophisticated AdNav Intelligence software.”

AdNav Intelligence software is designed to adapt in real time and to respond to incoming threats. It dynamically weighs the input from each sensor, making real-time adjustments on which sensor to rely on based on their reliability scores, environmental conditions and operational context. By applying a software-defined hardware philosophy, the solutions ensure continuous, high-confidence state estimation even when signals are disrupted, degraded or denied.

The configuration demonstrated best-in-class dead-reckoning accuracy, achieving a 0.012% error per distance travelled (7.5 m over 65 km) in the same contested conditions.

When paired with a wheel speed encoder, Boreas D90 delivered reliable dead-reckoning performance suitable for platforms operating in predictable or structured environments. Across the demonstration, the Boreas D90–wheel encoder configuration maintained strong navigation continuity, achieving a 0.018% error per distance travelled (11.7 m over 65 km), without reliance on GNSS, even under deliberate jamming.

“Now in our third year participating in this US Army program, APEX continues to challenge our systems under realistic electronic warfare conditions. We’re honoured to collaborate with the US Army to help better prepare warfighters’ mission readiness for complex multi-domain operations,” Shaw said.

Next steps

For Advanced Navigation, the results from APEX show significant potential for a range of current and future defence applications. The technologies exceeded the team’s expectations, demonstrating the level of accuracy and operational reliability required for successful navigation under GNSS-denied and -degraded conditions.

Continued investment in research and development — particularly in integrating inertial navigation systems with next-generation photonics — promises to further advance capability, resilience and adaptability on the battlefield.

Advanced Navigation said the next experiment will include partners within the United States Air Force’s 746th Test Squadron and the Joint Navigation Warfare Center, US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, and the Army Test and Evaluation Command. Advanced Navigation looks forward to returning in 2026.

Image: Supplied