Friday, April 19, 2024
Friday, April 19, 2024
(Editor's Note: This has been updated to include a letter from House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA), as well as a joint statement from the Defense and Transportation departments.)
Three leading defense lawmakers are urging President Trump to ensure the Federal Communications Commission reject a satellite communications company's bandwidth request due to the Pentagon's concerns about the spectrum usage interfering with GPS reception.
In an April 15 letter, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), along with House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX), call on Trump to intervene to prevent the FCC from approving a licensing modification request made by Ligado Networks, a satellite communications company based in Reston, VA.
"Ligado’s planned usage will likely harm military capabilities, particularly for the U.S. Space Force, and have major impact on the national economy," the lawmakers write. "Further, this plan would cost taxpayers billions of dollars to replace current GPS equipment, which could be rendered useless, and would force American families and businesses to use foreign space-based navigation and timing systems to replace the functions of GPS. This is fundamentally a bad deal for America's national and economic security, and the timing could not be worse."
They specifically highlight Pentagon concerns that Ligado's plan would interfere with Defense Department systems using GPS.
"Many of the chips that receive the GPS signals are embedded in thousands of weapon systems, which will have to be taken apart at great cost and replaced, potentially altering our day-to-day readiness," the lawmakers write. "Addressing these known problems adequately would interfere with vital operations and cost billions of taxpayer dollars to replace equipment."
The letter comes as the FCC moves to approve Ligado's licensing request. In an April 16 draft approval order, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai states it is "in the public interest" to approve the company's request.
"Although I appreciate the concerns that have been raised by certain Executive Branch agencies, it is the Commission’s duty to make an independent determination based on sound engineering," Pai continues. "And based on the painstaking technical analysis done by our expert staff, I am convinced that the conditions outlined in this draft order would permit Ligado to move forward without causing harmful interference."
But in an April 16 letter to Pai and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) joined the chorus of lawmakers calling for Ligado's request to be shot down. Smith argues the "possibility of a 5G network" does not outweigh the "unacceptable risk" to critical GPS signals.
"Make no mistake, I firmly support the necessity of the United States leading in the implementation of 5G networks," Smith writes. "It is a national security imperative that the U.S. military run on reliable 5G. The aggressive rate at which China has sought to promote its 5G companies around the world presents considerable security challenges that must be addressed. Yet, while I strongly support development of the world’s most robust, safe and secure network, using L-Band spectrum as Ligado’s proposal requires would pose larger security risks."
During an April 13 press conference at the Pentagon, DOD Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy said he thought DOD's concerns were being heard by the Trump administration.
"We have very strong technical evidence that would suggest that moving forward with that proposal would cause harm to the adjacent GPS spectrum," Deasy said. "Therefore, we continue to believe it's in the best interest -- and I believe I can say this on behalf of all the agencies -- it's in the interest of the government not to pursue the Ligado licensing request."
In a joint statement issued April 17, the Defense and Transportation departments said they are "strongly opposed to the Ligado proposal and have asked for its denial."
"Americans rely on our Global Positioning System (GPS) each day for many things: to locate citizens in need of emergency assistance through our E-911 system, to secure our financial system, to order and receive shipments, to travel by car for work and leisure, to facilitate commercial trucking and construction work, and even to make a simple cellphone call," DOD and DOT said in the statement. "Our Departments rely on GPS each day for all those reasons as well to coordinate tactical national security operations, launch spacecraft, track threats, and facilitate travel by air and sea. The proposed Ligado decision by the Federal Communications Commission will put all these uses of GPS at risk."
For its part, Ligado argues DOD's claim is "based on irrelevant and misleading data and is not supported by any concrete evidence," according to an April 12 FCC brief filed by the company's lawyers. The company argues federal agencies are impeding efforts to free up spectrum for fifth-generation telecommunications networks.
"Our nation's security and our economy demand that we end this four-year-long debate once and for all," the filing states. "The Commission's leadership on 5G and its efforts to make midband spectrum available must be supported if we are to advance the public interest and win the global race to 5G."