A Selective Availability Anti-spoofing Module (SAASM) used by military
Global Positioning System receivers to allow decryption of
precision GPS observations, while the accuracy of civilian GPS receivers may be reduced by the
United States military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...
through
Selective Availability (SA) and
anti-spoofing (AS).
However, on May 1, 2000
it was announced that SA was being discontinued, along with a United States Presidential Directive that no future GPS programs will include it.
Before the advent of
L2C
GPS signals are broadcast by Global Positioning System satellites to enable satellite navigation. Receivers on or near the Earth's surface can determine location, time, and velocity using this information. The GPS satellite constellation is ope ...
, AS was meant to prevent access to dual-frequency observations to civilian users.
SAASM allows satellite authentication, over-the-air rekeying, and contingency recovery. Those features are not available with the similar, but older, PPS-SM (Precise Positioning Service Security Module) system. PPS-SM systems require periodic updates with a classified "
Red Key" that may only be transmitted by secure means (such as physically taking the receiver to a secure facility for rekeying or having a trusted courier deliver a paper tape with a new key to the receiver, after which that paper tape must be securely destroyed). SAASM systems can be updated with an encrypted "
Black Key
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
" that may be transmitted over unclassified channels. All military receivers newly deployed after the end of September 2006 must use SAASM.
SAASM does not provide any additional anti-jam capability, however the higher data (chipping) rate of
P(Y) code can provide a higher processing gain which will provide better tracking performance in a jamming environment. Future GPS upgrades, such as
M-Code, will provide additional improvements to anti-jam capabilities.
SAASM hardware is covered with an anti-tampering coating, to deter analysis of their internal operation.
Deployment of the next generation military signal for GPS, called
M-code, commenced with the launch of IIR-M and IIF satellites, beginning in 2005. A complete constellation of 18 satellites with M-code capability is planned for 2016.
See also
*
Defense Advanced GPS Receiver
The AN/PSN-13 Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR; colloquially, "dagger") is a handheld GPS receiver used by the United States Department of Defense and select foreign military services. It is a military-grade, dual-frequency receiver, and has th ...
*
Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver
The AN/PSN-11 Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver (PLGR, colloquially "plugger") is a ruggedized, hand-held, single-frequency GPS receiver fielded by the United States Armed Forces. It incorporates the Precise Positioning Service — Security ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
GPSworld.com article "Saving SAASM"by Robert Huffman (January 2006) - The file is not available.
Global Positioning System