Multiple shipowners trial jamming and spoofing-resilient ship positioning system

GPS interruption, which occurs mainly in the eastern Mediterranean, Black Sea, Red Sea, Arabian Gulf, Russia’s far east and in the Arctic, “impacts shipping, logistics and offshore operations” Mr Tschudi said.

NAL Research developed PntGuard from its experience with more than 10,000 APNT products installed on vehicles and other non-maritime assets. With support from SGM and Tschudi Shipping, it fast-tracked adapting this technology for maritime applications and tested it on ships.

PntGuard relies on the PNT capability of Iridium’s LEO constellation with a receiver unit, bridge interface and display and SkyRouter onshore laptop application for multi-operator use.

“Iridium PNT is 1,000 times stronger than GPS and it is encrypted,” said NAL president Rob Bills. When applied with GNSS, it provides true positioning even in sea areas affected by GPS jamming.”

NAL tested this APNT technology during the Jammertest events in northwest Norway in 2024 and 2025 and it has been trialled since on vessels owned and operated by Scandinavian shipping companies including Frontline, Wallenius Wilhelmsen and Tschudi Shipping.

“We got real-world results during a six-month pilot of PntGuard involved six different shipping companies and 10 operating ships of multiple types,” said Mr Bills.

“This solution was applied across different vessels that operated over 100,000 nautical miles worldwide, including in areas affected by GPS jamming, and our product worked effectively.”

This included voyages through the Arabian Sea, Middle East Gulf, Red Sea, eastern Mediterranean, eastern Baltic Sea and in the Arctic, where guinea-pig ships encountered GNSS attacks and still sailed safely due to PntGuard.

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