The current estimate is that ‘positioning, navigation and timing’ (PNT) underpins a tenth of the European economy. The transport sector is obviously reliant on PNT, but so for example is precision agriculture, along with power, communications and banking networks and the fast-growing internet of things.

Satellite navigation, with signals from space extending across the globe, represents the single biggest source of PNT information, but these signals are not available in all locations and are vulnerable to natural or human-made interference. PNT is so important that Europe needs to hone our competitiveness in this field, and be wary of relying on a single-source solution.