WASHINGTON — TrustPoint said it has tested its C-band navigation signals on a receiver developed by Hexagon’s NovAtel. The test marked an early step toward making the startup’s GPS alternative compatible with commercial navigation hardware.
The Virginia-based startup said Aug. 25 a NovAtel receiver acquired and tracked a live C-band signal from a TrustPoint satellite, while a separate laboratory test evaluated a combined L-band and C-band receiver under simulated jamming.
TrustPoint chief executive Patrick Shannon said the test simulated a “very basic wideband high power jammer.”
One of the main goals, he said, was to show that C-band capability could be added to established satellite navigation receiver technology and used alongside conventional L-band signals.
The work was conducted under a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 2 contract funded by the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command. TrustPoint received a $1.2 million award in 2025 to work with NovAtel and Hexagon US Federal on C-band-enabled receivers.
NovAtel, part of Sweden’s Hexagon, develops high-precision satellite navigation receivers and related positioning technology used in aerospace, defense and other markets.
TrustPoint’s earlier demonstrations of transmitting and receiving C-band navigation signals had been conducted internally, Shannon said. The NovAtel program was the first time the company supported development of a third-party C-band receiver.
NovAtel started with its existing L-band equipment and in “well under a year” designed and implemented C-band capability in a combined L-band/C-band prototype, Shannon said.
The receiver architecture reflects how TrustPoint expects its service to be used, he said. Rather than asking military customers to abandon GPS and switch entirely to C-band, the company sees its signals working alongside existing L-band navigation services to give users access to widely separated parts of the radio spectrum.
GPS and other major global navigation satellite systems transmit navigation signals in L-band. C-band has long been widely used for satellite communications, while portions of the spectrum are also used for terrestrial wireless services including 5G.
Shannon argues that separating navigation services across L- and C-band could make it harder for an adversary to disrupt both at the same time. Frequency diversity “complicates the adversary’s denial activities and offers a lot of resilience to end users,” he said.
The demonstration did not establish how TrustPoint’s system would perform against more sophisticated electronic warfare in an operational setting. Testing against an actual jammer generally requires access to an authorized military range and regulatory coordination, Shannon said, and such an opportunity did not fit the timing of the Navy contract.
Shannon said TrustPoint does not intend to depend on NovAtel alone. The company expects to work with multiple receiver suppliers offering different levels of performance, cost and form factors for military and commercial users.
Building more satellites
TrustPoint, founded in 2020, is developing a commercial positioning, navigation and timing, or PNT, service using satellites in low-Earth orbit. It aims to complement or provide an alternative to government-operated systems such as GPS.
The company has launched and operated three demonstration satellites and is now building four more, Shannon said. TrustPoint envisions a constellation of roughly 300 satellites.
The next four spacecraft are being supported through a $4 million Tactical Funding Increase, or TACFI, contract awarded by the U.S. Space Force in May.
Under that SpaceWERX program, TrustPoint plans to deploy four satellites and four ground stations and demonstrate a navigation system that does not depend on GPS. The tests are expected to determine position using signals from multiple space and ground assets.
The government is providing capital to build the spacecraft, but TrustPoint will retain ownership and continue operating them after the government work is completed, Shannon said.
TrustPoint builds its navigation payloads at its headquarters in Herndon, Virginia. Indiana-based NearSpace Launch manufactures the spacecraft.
Shannon noted there are other C-band PNT development efforts, including work in Europe and studies in Japan, but characterized TrustPoint as the “only mature C-band program” focused on PNT.