Program Summary
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is the predominant means of positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) for a majority of systems and applications, both military and civilian. The Spatial, Temporal, and Orientation Information in Contested Environments (STOIC) program seeks to develop a backup PNT system that provides GPS-level and better performance without relying on GPS. STOIC comprises three technical areas that when integrated would have the potential to provide global PNT independent of GPS: 1) earth-fixed navigation using very low frequency (VLF) signals; 2) deployable optical clocks based on technology developed under the DARPA QuASAR program; and 3) precision time transfer and ranging over data links.