RIN PNT Advisory Group – White Paper Release Ahead of Leadership in PNT Seminar

By Andy Proctor and Guy Buesnel

The RIN PNT Advisory group Executive group met recently and a significant topic of discussion was the initial release of the RIN white paper “Recommendations to promote the adoption of Resilient Position, Navigation and Timing in the UK”. This is an important milestone for the RIN PNT Advisory Group.  

The report makes some significant recommendations on the best ways forward to drive a greater understanding and adoption of the principles of Resilient PNT in the UK.

In his foreword to the report, Professor Terry Moore, former RIN president and Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham, details how society has become increasingly dependent on the services provided by PNT and that the increasing vulnerability of these services has become a critical issue to resolve.

The authors of the white paper, Ramsey Faragher and Mitch Narins (both FRIN’s), with support from the RIN PNT Advisory Group, believe that Resilient PNT is an area in which the UK could provide leadership to improve PNT performance given the high level of expert knowledge and track record in innovation and excellence that the UK possesses.  

A RIN- led approach is advocated by the authors who go on to make several key findings and recommendations as a result of their research – which they believe could be transformational to the future of Resilient PNT.

The paper was produced to help understand the values of developing standards, guidelines, and/or legislation for Resilient PNT in an already complex eco-system.  The importance of protecting Critical National Infrastructure from the consequences of increased vulnerability of PNT services to disruptions, was a strong driver in developing the findings and recommendations.

The paper considers the UK’s key strengths in PNT, making the point that the UK has historically been a global leader in PNT from the establishment of the longitude act (and prize) in 1714 following pressure from seafarers, the origins of the Greenwich meridian first established by Sir George Airy in 1851, and the “battle of the beams” in  World War II,  where the UK pioneered many radio navigation aids, counter-measures to defend against German radio based navigation technologies and early terrain-mapping radar navigation systems.  The UK carried this expertise forward into the 21st century and has taken leading roles in notable areas such as signals and control for GNSS systems, PNT satellites, receiver development smartphone navigation, precise timing transfer and control, system integration, PNT-enabled applications, and test measurement and verification.
The report goes on to examine the challenges facing PNT today and discusses existing PNT standards and guidance to propose a way forward to develop UK Resilient PNT best practice and guidelines. 

It is a wide-ranging white paper and contains a wealth of information along with its measured recommendations and conclusions.
With the “2nd Leadership in PNT” event being planned to take place at the Royal Society on 07 November 2023 the white paper will obviously be a major discussion point on the day.  A panel session at the event is being planned along with a video introduction from the two principal authors.   Event delegates will have the opportunity to read the white paper in advance of the seminar and to provide their input – and additionally they will be able to register their interest in being directly involved in the follow up activities proposed by the white paper. This will be an excellent opportunity for attendees to play a significant part in contributing to the development and excellence of a strong UK approach to Resilient PNT, and to the development of the RIN programme over the next year.

Andy Proctor, Chair of the UK PNT Advisory Group, and the part of organising committee for the Leadership in PNT event, hailed the release of the RIN white paper, “Standards, best practices, and legislation play an important role in the resilience and preparedness, to disruption, of infrastructure that uses PNT now and into the future. This new initiative and proposed working group could bring together UK expertise in the field to address the challenges it identifies.”

The RIN PNT Advisory group is also working on matters relating to Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Sensing, PNT in Defence, and PNT Innovation. It also taking learning from across the RIN from its other groups, such as the newly formed Maritime Navigation Group and the Cognitive Navigation groups, some of this learning will also be discussed at the Leadership event in November. Register here.