Defense Innovation Unit partners with Orbital Insight to take on satellite spoofing

The Pentagon’s innovation hub is working with industry to identify satellite spoofing operations using commercially available data.

Through a new program called Harmonious Rook, the Defense Innovation Unit has partnered with geospatial intelligence company Orbital Insight to develop a platform that can detect Global Navigation Satellite System spoofing. The company announced the contract in a Feb. 10 news release.

“Orbital Insight’s platform will leverage its multisensory data stack, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to alert analysts and operators to potential jamming and spoofing events, techniques commonly used by adversarial actors to cover up activities or sabotage operations,” the company said.

The Defense Department is not alone in its concerns about location data manipulation, as users around the globe are dependent on GNSS-based systems. However, spoofing can have significant national security implications and could impact missions highly reliant on positioning, navigation and timing capabilities.