Beyond GNSS/GPS: magnetic navigation and multisensor resilience in contested skies

Story

December 04, 2025

In September 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s aircraft circled over Bulgaria for nearly an hour after losing GNSS navigation, due to suspected Russian jamming. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said that the interference was part of a complex campaign by Russia against Europe; however, Bulgarian officials said they will not investigate because this kind of GPS jamming is now so common.

Such interference is no longer an anomaly. Across Eastern Europe and the Middle East, state actors increasingly use electronic warfare to deny satellite navigation, threatening flight safety and mission continuity. Other examples: In January 2025, Germany’s top military commander, Gen. Carsten Breuer, said his plane was targeted by Russian GPS jamming attacks; in another, in April 2025, Iran launched a concerted electronic warfare (EW) campaign across the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, targeting U.S. military aircraft and maritime operations with aggressive GPS and communications jamming.

How it works – why it’s different

Everywhere on Earth has a distinct magnetic signature – call it a geological fingerprint – that magnetic navigation (magnav) systems can use to find their position. Using highly sensitive magnetometers and sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, magnav systems compare the acquired signals against existing magnetic anomaly maps to determine an aircraft’s position with a high degree of accuracy – without any external signals. When paired with GPS, inertial navigation, and/or vision-based systems, magnav enables unmatched redundancy, especially where satellite signals are degraded or denied.

In modern aircraft, inertial reference units (IRUs) normally maintain positional accuracy by receiving periodic updates from GPS or GNSS systems. When GPS is jammed, IRUs drift; when spoofed, IRU updates can’t be trusted – both of which compromise mission safety and success. During such interference events, magnav can provide positional updates to IRUs, ensuring that they maintain navigational accuracy and trustworthiness.

Key magnav attributes include:

• Unjammable and unspoofable: Cannot be disrupted by electronic warfare or hostile interference.
• All-weather: Functions regardless of clouds, precipitation, or visibility.
• Terrain-agnostic: Operates over mountains, oceans, deserts, or urban environments.
• Passive technology: Emits no signals, making it undetectable and immune to detection-based targeting.

Proving it in the air: real-world flight results

Before magnav can be entrusted to navigate aircraft, it must be thoroughly tested and meet global industry standards. In 2023, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) Air Mobility Command (AMC) completed magnav flight tests during two major operations: Exercise Golden Phoenix (May 2023) and Exercise Mobility Guardian (August 2023). A year later, AMC tested magnav’s generalizability and potential to act as a primary, real-time navigation source. For the first time, pilots used magnav to acquire their position and navigate to designated coordinates without GPS. Of the five segments flown, three reached RNP1.0 – i.e., Required Navigation Performance, accurate to within one nautical mile.

NATO has also taken a great interest in magnav, inviting several companies (including SandboxAQ) to participate in the 2025 Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) cohort as part of the Sensing & Surveillance group. Other U.S.-allied governments are testing magnav systems for both aviation, maritime, and land use cases.

For example, the USAF’s tests have focused on long-haul, crewed operations but could be expanded to other airframes to provide safe, fuel-efficient navigation in degraded environments. Similarly, it could be expanded to autonomous platforms, extending their operational reach and improving their survivability and chance of operational success. Maritime operations are also a prime use-case, supplementing GNSS to improve blue water and littoral navigation and reduce risk for ships, submarines, or uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs).

Known limitations and engineering considerations

While magnav shows promise, like any system it has certain challenges that need to be addressed. For example, magnav systems must be properly calibrated for each specific vehicle type and/or variant. The physical structure and onboard electronics of modern aircraft, ships, or other vehicles – as well as external magnetic noise from other sources – can potentially skew measurements. Designing AI algorithms specifically for denoising both local and external distortions and enhancing signal clarity can help maintain navigational accuracy. Once calibrated, magnav systems can conceivably scale across large numbers of similar vehicles.

To further validate magnav’s accuracy, Acubed (the Silicon Valley innovation center of Airbus) completed a five-month, nationwide test with SandboxAQ’s AQNav designed to mirror real-world flight conditions. Throughout 101 sorties and 44,000-plus km (27,340 miles) flown, AQNav maintained RNP 2.0 (the standard for en route travel) 100% of total flight time, RNP 1.0 (the standard for commercial airport approaches) 95% of flight time, and RNP 0.3 (the standard for commercial airport landings) 64% of the time.

Operational concepts

AQNav can be used as part of a multisensor, system-of-systems architecture including inertial, visual, celestial, and magnetic navigation. Its successful tests with both military and civilian partners indicate the technology’s readiness for additional testing across an expanded range of platforms, operational scenarios, and mission parameters for enhanced mission assurance under GPS-denied or degraded conditions.

GPS vulnerability: What government and industry must do

The U.S. government deserves credit for recognizing the GPS vulnerability challenge early and funding complementary PNT solutions. Program managers across the services are already including multi-sensor fusion in requirements and sponsoring field demonstrations – important steps that show clear commitment and leadership under significant constraints.

However, the frequency and sophistication of jamming and spoofing continue to accelerate, outpacing even well-executed programs. To close that gap, industry and government must work to scale and accelerate complementary PNT investments, building on the groundwork already laid; translate field demonstrations and sensor-fusion requirements into operational deployments faster, ensuring that forces see tangible benefits in-theater; and broaden collaboration across services, agencies, and industry, sharing lessons learned to maximize impact.

GPS is indispensable for military operations, but redundancy is needed for mission assurance. For now, magnetic navigation is not a replacement for GPS but rather a critical complement to existing systems. As technologies, weapons systems, adversarial tactics, and the threat landscape evolves, magnav systems could take more of a leading role in delivering accurate and precise navigation. By prioritizing multisensor PNT resilience now, governments and their military leaders can ensure their forces stay on course even when GPS goes dark.

Ken Devine is the Product Manager, Quantum Navigation at SandboxAQ. He has a background in space operations, product management, and entrepreneurship. His contributions include managing satellite assembly, integration, and test for GPS III satellites; directing cloud-based product teams; and founding a SaaS company.

Sandbox AQ    https://www.sandboxaq.com/

AQNav undergoing real-time flight evaluation onboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster at Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina. Photo courtesy SandboxAQ.