May 13, 2020

As the Department of Defense and its allies attempt to stop Ligado from moving forward with plans the Pentagon says will harm the Global Positioning System, consensus is growing around the idea of an independent review of the testing the Department had completed for interference.

The dispute stems from the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to approve Ligado’s request to use L-Band spectrum, first reported by C4ISRNET April 10. Now the question is whether Pentagon tests showing that Ligado’s plan would interfere with GPS signals vital to military, commercial and civilian technologies are still relevant, given mitigation plans from the company.

A May 6 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the issue underlined a fundamental disconnect between the two sides over technical testing of Ligado’s capabilities, a he-said-he-said situation where both sides claim the data shows the other is comprehensively wrong.

Read the full story at C4ISRNET.