TERN awarded US Army contract for GPS-free vehicle navigation

The US Army has awarded an $11.26 million contract to TERN, an Austin-based artificial intelligence company, to deploy a positioning system that functions without GPS or radio-frequency signals. The technology, known as the Independently Derived Positioning System (IDPS), allows military vehicles to determine their location by utilizing internal vehicle data.

This development addresses growing vulnerabilities in modern warfare, where GPS signals are increasingly subject to jamming, spoofing, and electronic interference, as seen in conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. TERN’s system connects to a vehicle’s diagnostic port and provides navigation data to both the operator and command-and-control systems via a tablet interface.

By calculating position from within the vehicle rather than relying on external satellite signals, the system aims to maintain maneuverability and logistics even when satellite communications are denied or degraded.