How prepared is society for a potential outage of global satellite navigation systems?

Global Navigation Satellite Systems

Ivan Stepanov/Unsplash

Date of publication:

Tag:

  • Research achievements
  • University Office for Research
  • Research
  • SDG 9
  • SDG 11
  • UL FDV
  • SDG 16

Modern society is increasingly dependent on global satellite navigation systems (GNSS) such as GPS, Galileo and BeiDou. These systems are no longer merely a navigation aid; rather, they represent the invisible backbone of modern societies—supporting everything from transport and energy to banking, telecommunications, and emergency services. The key question is whether society is even aware of how deeply it is intertwined with this technology, and how unprepared it may be for a potential outage.

This question was examined by Prof. Dr. Iztok Prezelj and Assist. Prof. Dr. Jelena Juvan from the Defence Research Centre at the Faculty of Social Sciences. They focused on GNSS as critical infrastructure and assessed the cross-sectoral consequences of a potential outage in Europe, finding that:

  • GNSS constitute critical infrastructure due to their cross-sectoral interconnectedness; consequently, their disruption simultaneously affects multiple key societal systems.

  • The timing service provided by GNSS (atomic clocks) is as important as navigation, as it enables the synchronization of power grids, telecommunications, and financial systems.

  • GNSS have a pronounced dual-use (civil–military) character, which increases their strategic and security vulnerability.

  • A GNSS outage can trigger cascading effects (e.g., traffic accidents, power outages, disruptions in banking transactions, reduced effectiveness of emergency services and defence, etc.) that intensify over time and spread across sectors.

  • Most sectors lack adequate resilience plans and backup solutions for prolonged disruptions.

The results of the study contribute to greater awareness of societal vulnerability and highlight the need to systematically integrate GNSS into critical infrastructure protection policies. In the long term, the findings may support improved resilience planning, the development of backup systems, and greater societal preparedness for crises—ultimately enhancing security, stability, and sustainable development.

The study was published in the scientific journal Progress in Disaster Science.

  • ARIS (en)
  • Sofinancira EU (en)