Project Hecate - Keeping GPS Viable

[Forest Green]

Project Hecate: The Space Force’s quiet effort to keep GPS survivable after 2040​

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/02...iet-effort-to-keep-gps-survivable-after-2040/

“Project Hecate is evaluating candidate architectures including different orbits, the role of commercial SATNAV [satellite navigation] concepts, advanced command and control options, and the evolution of user equipment,” the spokesperson added. “It is a holistic, analytics-based effort assessing several critical variables to provide candidate solutions that are not constrained by the current GPS architecture.”

 

[Josh_TN]

A couple of academic teams have managed to achieve 10m accuracy using Starlink orbit information and Doppler shift, as received by frequency agile passive phased arrays. It is particularly notable that the receivers do not need to actually have Starlink access or decrypt any data using this method. I would think an intentional timestamp signal from a LEO constellation specifically designed for the purpose would provide a much stronger signal with far more sources than GPS, and that hundreds of satellites might easily be built and orbited in a few years (as was done with the most recent NRO constellation).