A Study of a Low-Cost Navigation Augmentation System: The United Kingdom’s Immediate Answer to the Galileo Brexit Conundrum

Abstract

United Kingdom’s Brexit from the European Union implies restricted access to the European Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) System - Galileo; with no access to the secured and encrypted signal used for defense and government purposes, which is restricted to European Union (EU) members. To mitigate this issue, the United Kingdom can, as a matter of urgency, launch a payload on a national military Communications Satellite to provide Navigation Overlay Services for the United Kingdom territory, surrounding waters and neighboring ally countries to meet the requirements of: Defense systems, Aviation, Maritime requirements and the effectiveness of Location-based Services for Emergencies and Crisis management etc. The United Kingdom can deploy a low-cost Satellite-Based Augmentation System(SBAS) as a navigation overlay service (NOS) on a hosted national geostationary satellite utilizing GNSS, especially GPS and Galileo as an alternative to the Galileo’s PRS.  This paper describes the design of a navigation overlay service system as a hosted payload on a national satellite and the required supporting ground infrastructure, highlighting various applications, services and solutions.