eLoran: Articles and Blogs

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When I was writing my piece about Loran last month, it became obvious that I needed some guidance. In fact, that piece concludes with this: ‘I'm just really curious about why Loran seems to be so "Off again, on again, gone again."'

So I contacted some high level navigation people I know at the Coast Guard, and they put me in touch with Commander Bob Feigenblatt of the eNavigation Branch.

I shared my posting with him, and he drafted a response for me. Unfortunately, that response had to be reviewed and cleared before it could be released, so it wasn't available by the time MadMariner went to press with that item.

But I've got that response in hand now, and it is extremely clear: Loran-C and eLoran are horses of different colors.

OK, that's not the way Commander Feigenblatt states it. Here's my executive summary of his response:

• Loran-C is obsolete, and it's going away in the United States.
• eLoran does not exist in the United States.
• It remains unclear what sort of system will emerge as a reliable Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) backup for GPS.

The President's proposed 2010 budget identifies potential savings across the federal government to reduce the Nation's deficit and to discontinue outdated programs. Included therein is termination of the Loran-C system for an immediate savings of $36M and $190M over five years.

The Loran-C system was a valuable position, navigation, and timing system when it was established in 1957. As a result of technological advancements over the last 20 years and the emergence of the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), Loran-C is no longer required by the armed forces, the transportation sector, or the nation's security interests, and is used only by a small segment of the population. Loran-C systems are only used by a handful of nations in the world and its coverage is available to limited portions of the northern hemisphere and not at all in the southern hemisphere.

The Loran-C system was not established as, nor was it intended to be, a viable systemic backup for GPS.

Consistent with the 2008 Federal Radionavigation Plan, the Department of Homeland Security will continue to work with other federal agencies to look across the critical infrastructure and key resource sectors to determine the need for a single domestic system as a backup to GPS.

Enhanced Loran (eLoran) does not exist in the United States. There is neither the funding nor the authority to modernize Loran-C to eLoran. Significant additional government investment of hundreds of millions of dollars would be required to transform the Loran-C system into eLoran to potentially serve as a systemic Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) backup for GPS.