The Department of War is pursuing the development of prototype magnetic data-gathering platforms for the Geomagnetic Airborne Unmanned Survey System, or GAUSS, program.
What Is the GAUSS Program?
According to the Defense Innovation Unit, the GAUSS initiative is a long-term, phased effort designed to address warfighter needs for precision navigation capabilities as part of efforts to find alternatives to the Global Positioning System, or GPS, which has shown limitations in contested environments. The program aims to develop platforms capable of rapidly collecting high-quality magnetic map data over trans-oceanic distances, enabling operational magnetic navigation.
What Capabilities Are Expected From Vendors?
The program seeks data collection platforms that can integrate commercial or government off-the-shelf magnetometers with minimal interference, operate cost-effectively across diverse over-water domains and scale rapidly to support large-area magnetic surveys while enabling sensor installation in magnetically clean locations.
The prototypes will be validated through flight testing to assess navigational performance, magnetic collection accuracy, platform magnetic noise, data processing methods and creation of cost projections for future collections.
What Is Magnetic Navigation?
Magnetic navigation is a GPS-independent navigation method that uses pre-measured reference data of the Earth’s crustal magnetic field, collected locally with high accuracy, to enable reliable navigation over ocean environments. MagNav systems utilize magnetometers, highly sensitive magnets designed to detect changes in the magnetic field created by magnetic rocks in the outer crust, reported Breaking Defense.
