US lawmakers on Thursday, 7 June issued stark warnings that a successful attack on the Global Positioning System (GPS) could inflict severe damage on the American economy, as a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology hearing examined escalating threats from China and Russia and weighed competing technologies for backup positioning, navigation, and timing services.

Key Warnings from Lawmakers

Subcommittee Chairman Richard Hudson told the panel that GPS today underpins far more than navigation — serving sectors from energy infrastructure and financial transactions to emergency response systems. 'Put simply, a catastrophic failure of GPS as a result of adversary spoofing or jamming would be devastating to our economy,' Hudson said. He pointed to a recent incident in which a British military aircraft reportedly lost GPS signals due to suspected Russian jamming.

Ranking Member Doris Matsui warned that most Americans underestimate their dependence on the technology. 'GPS helps keep your internet running, your payments moving, and your bank account safer from fraud,' she said. 'It helps keep first responders find you when you call 911.' She cautioned that a major disruption could cascade across communications, aviation, energy, agriculture, and supply chains.

Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie added that adversarial jamming and spoofing are already active threats. 'Overseas, our adversaries are actively jamming and spoofing GPS in conflict zones, putting our service members at even greater risk,' he said. 'A disruption to GPS here at home has the potential to be catastrophic for the economy.'

How Reliable Is GPS Today

Lisa Dyer, Executive Director of the GPS Innovation Alliance, described GPS as 'one of America's greatest innovations,' noting that since becoming operational in 1995, the system 'has not experienced a single system wide outage.' The GPS constellation currently comprises 32 satellites and delivers signal availability of 99.99 per cent. However, Dyer warned that localised jamming and spoofing incidents are increasingly affecting aviation and maritime operations, and called for stronger enforcement against illegal interference alongside accelerated modernisation of GPS infrastructure.

The Case for a Terrestrial Backup

Mariam Sorond, chief executive officer of NextNav, argued that the United States remains uniquely exposed because it lacks a ground-based backup network. 'China and Russia have built ground based backups to GPS. The United States has not,' she said, calling GPS 'a national treasure' but also 'a single point of failure.'

Sam Matheny of the National Association of Broadcasters outlined the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS), which leverages existing broadcast towers and licensed spectrum. He said the system was designed to address a 'more than $1 billion a day economic and national security risk' created by overreliance on GPS. Several other witnesses also promoted alternative and complementary PNT systems that could continue operating if GPS signals were disrupted.

Spectrum Disputes and the Road Ahead

The hearing also exposed sharp disagreements over proposals involving the lower 900 MHz spectrum band. Consumer groups, technology companies, and industry representatives cautioned that changes to spectrum allocation could interfere with services used by utilities, public safety agencies, retailers, transportation operators, and agricultural businesses.

Lawmakers from both parties stressed that any future backup system must be rigorously tested and must bolster resilience without imposing significant costs on consumers or disrupting existing services. Originally developed by the US military and later opened for civilian use, GPS now serves billions of users worldwide across aviation, telecommunications, banking, logistics, and precision agriculture. The debate over its vulnerabilities — and what replaces it if it fails — is set to intensify as adversarial capabilities continue to advance.