Source: United States Senator for Oklahoma James Inhofe
U.S. Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.), ranking member and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the below statement after the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) committee released its study, as required by Congress, on FCC Order 20-48.
“From the beginning, we have expressed strong concerns with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision to grant Ligado Networks their license modification request, and the unacceptable risk it would cause to the Department of Defense (DOD), the Federal Government Global Positioning System (GPS) and Satellite Communications (SATCOM) operations.
“Before the Ligado Order was issued, fourteen federal agencies and departments expressed strong opposition to the application sought by Ligado over concerns about potential harmful interference with GPS operations. Afterward, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and numerous impacted stakeholders urged the FCC to stay and reconsider their Order—expressing concerns with the same potential harmful operations to GPS and satellite communications.
“In the FY21 defense bill, Congress directed the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an independent technical review of the FCC Order. We agree with the Department of Defense’s assessment that this study ‘confirms that Ligado’s system will interfere with DoD GPS receivers, which include high-precision GPS receivers’ and that ‘Iridium satellite communications will experience harmful interference caused by Ligado user terminals.’
“Furthermore, the National Academy of Sciences’ review concluded that the FCC Order’s outlined procedures to mitigate interference may not be operationally practical, validating our concerns.
“In the time since the FCC issued its Order, it has become increasingly clear to us the national security implications of Ligado’s operations pursuant to the FCC’s Order. With this new information, we again urge the FCC to stay and reconsider their 2020 Order.”
On August 17, 2022, Inhofe and Reed led a group of their colleagues in sending a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging the organization to reconsider granting the license modification request of Ligado Networks, which seeks to use a part of the communications spectrum in a way that risks interference with Global Positioning System (GPS) reception.
On January 1, 2021, the enacted Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act included a provision authored by Inhofe and Reed directing the Secretary of Defense to contract with the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine for an independent technical review of FCC order 20-48.