# Beyond GPS: The US Army's New Battlefield Navigation System

> Austin startup Tern lands an $11 million Army contract to keep military vehicles on track when GPS fails.
- Title: Beyond GPS: The US Army's New Battlefield Navigation System
- Summary: Austin startup Tern lands an $11 million Army contract to keep military vehicles on track when GPS fails. Modern military vehicles can navigate jammed…
- Keywords: defense, navigation, military, tech, hardware, technology, startups, Beyond, GPS, Army's, Battlefield, System
- Source: TechCrunch — https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/10/us-army-places-11m-bet-on-austin-based-gps-alternative-tern
- Author: Sean O'Kane
- Published: 2026-09-10T12:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: defense, navigation, military, tech, hardware, technology, startups
## The Army's $11M navigation bet
The U.S. Army awarded Austin startup Tern an $11.26 million contract to deploy its non-GPS navigation tech in military vehicles.
## The growing threat to GPS
GPS disruptions and signal jamming are surging across war zones in Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East, leaving troops vulnerable when satellite signals drop.
## Navigation powered by diagnostics
Tern plugs directly into a vehicle's onboard diagnostic board. It passively reads sensor data and feeds coordinates directly to a soldier's tablet.

> We’ve got a device that plugs into the diagnostics board of the vehicle, wired to a tablet, and then that tablet is the interface for the soldier to use
## A closed system on the edge
By using local edge processing, the system calculates coordinates independently. Electronic warfare systems cannot jam signal connections that do not exist.

> I don’t know that there is broad awareness on the fragility of the [GPS] system from a consumer standpoint.
## Proven on a 1,300-mile drive
Tern's co-founder tested the device on a drive from Texas to California. Traditional GPS dropped out dozens of times, but Tern never lost its location once.
## Built for immediate battlefield use
Designed by a military veteran, the system was built for real battlefield deployment rather than remaining an academic experiment.

> We recognized it has to be actually deployable, actually scalable, and not a science project.
## Key takeaway

Modern military vehicles can navigate jammed battlefields by using onboard diagnostic data instead of fragile satellite signals.