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From GovernmentExecutive.com:

A terrestrial backup for the satellite-based Global Positioning System endorsed by a wide range of users from the aviation, marine transportation, and telecommunications industries gained a new lease on life in the fiscal 2008 omnibus spending bill passed by the House Monday. The Coast Guard had planned to terminate operation of its LORAN (for Long-Range Navigation) system, which could serve as the backbone of a GPS backup, in fiscal 2008.

The Transportation Department’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center urged development of an alternative to GPS in a 2001 report that concluded the satellite-based system could be knocked out by jamming its high-frequency low-power signals. The report suggested LORAN as a possible backup. Since the Volpe report was issued, the Coast Guard -- at the direction of Congress -- has converted most of its LORAN stations, which had a location accuracy of from one quarter of a nautical mile to one nautical mile, to eLORAN stations, which have an accuracy of between eight and 65 feet. GPS also provides precise timing signals for telecommunications companies worldwide, and they urged the Transportation and DHS to adopt eLORAN as a backup during a public comment period earlier this year.

Strangely enough, this very topic has occupied the corners of my mind on the bus lately, especially with so many other nations making their way into space and with so much of our military and civilian infrastructure dependent upon data delivered via satellite. With a terrestrial backup to satellite-based GPS we at least stand a chance of being able to conduct somewhat normal operations if, say, China were to blast a few shiny metal toys out of orbit by "accident".

[Props to DHS]