How to navigate at hypersonic speed without GPS? U.S. military soars past Mach 5 with new receiver tested

Concept diagram of a hypersonic missile. (Image taken from General Dynamics Mission Systems)

[Compiled by Chen Chengliang/Comprehensive Report] The U.S. Army and General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS) completed a hypersonic flight test of a new navigation receiver, demonstrating navigation technology when GPS cannot be used. The receiver, called "Multi-Orbit Navigation" (MO-Nav), was tested on Stratolaunch's Talon-A test aircraft.

According to the engineering technology media "Interesting Engineering", this test was conducted by GDMS in cooperation with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Aviation and Missile Center (AvMC). Talon-A is rocket-powered, reusable, can fly at speeds above Mach 5, and can be used for hypersonic flight tests.

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MO-Nav is a small single-board circuit card that adopts a software-defined architecture and is designed to receive a variety of global navigation satellite systems, signals of opportunity and commercial positioning, navigation and timing signals to provide navigation information when GPS is unavailable. The software-defined architecture can adjust receiver functions through updates, reducing the need to replace hardware during upgrades.

Before this hypersonic test flight, MO-Nav also underwent artillery firing tests, withstood the strong impact during launch, and provided signal measurement data to the ammunition mission computer.

Follow-up plans to integrate military M codes

GDMS did not announce which satellite galaxies or commercial signals were actually used in this test flight, nor did it disclose the size, weight, power consumption and navigation accuracy of the receiver.

GDMS is developing the "Multi-Orbit High Assurance Weapon Kit" (MOHAWK) based on the MO-Nav architecture, planning to support more signals and satellite systems, and to have scalable anti-jamming capabilities. The kit design supports integrating military M-Code receivers or connecting to external M-Code GPS receivers to provide RF output with anti-interference and anti-spoofing capabilities.

GDMS and AvMC are expected to demonstrate the MOHAWK hypersonic application integrating M code functions in 2027, and to conduct subsequent demonstrations on the precision-guided munitions platform in 2028.