The US Army has awarded Texas startup Tern an $11.26 million contract to deploy navigation technology across its vehicles that does not rely on GPS signals. The agreement does not specify how many vehicles will be involved or where the deployment will take place, but it highlights an increasingly evident priority for the armed forces: maintaining orientation and route planning even when satellite systems are unavailable, degraded, or deliberately jammed.
Austin-based Tern describes its platform as a kind of digital map for the battlefield. Behind this phrasing lies an approach that differs from traditional satellite reception: the system collects data already generated by the vehicle while driving, processes it locally, and derives a position suitable for display, routing, and navigation. For the soldier, the interface is a tablet; Tern's hardware plugs into the vehicle's diagnostic port and transmits the required information to the app.
The company maintains that its hardware passively listens to vehicle data without interfering with its flow. Shaun Moore, co-founder and CEO of Tern, did not disclose the proprietary methods used to translate those signals into latitude and longitude coordinates. That represents a significant hurdle to evaluating the system's precision, reliability, and performance under diverse operational conditions from the outside. Yet the product logic is straightforward: leverage onboard sensors and data rather than waiting for an external positioning signal.
Navigation has become an operational vulnerability
GPS remains an essential infrastructure for both civil and military mobility, but its dependence on radio signals leaves it vulnerable to interference and manipulation. Incidents of jamming and disruption have escalated, particularly across the Middle East and in the airspace over Ukraine and Russia. In a combat scenario, losing location data means more than just having to consult a paper map: it can jeopardize the ability to move a convoy, coordinate units, establish secure routes, and reach a destination on schedule.
The issue also concerns the United States. The government and Congress have repeatedly promoted programs dedicated to resilient positioning and navigation technologies that are not tied to GPS. According to reports, the US military itself has conducted experiments with GPS jamming; activities that demonstrate how delicate it is to operate in a contested electromagnetic environment where even allied systems can be affected by interference.
This is why Tern is not seen merely as a backup to be activated when the signal is lost. The startup relies on a closed architecture—a system that does not need to continuously receive external data to determine the vehicle’s location. In theory, reducing RF dependencies makes it harder for an adversary to interfere with navigation. Protection, however, does not equal invulnerability: TechCrunch does not report sufficient technical details to establish which sensors are used, with what accuracy the solution operates, or how the position is verified over time.
From vehicle data to a usable position
Modern vehicles generate a constant stream of information while driving. Tern built its stack around the ability to use these signals to track the vehicle's movements and produce an autonomous position estimate. Processing takes place at the edge, on board the vehicle, an aspect that can be critical in scenarios without reliable connectivity or where data cannot be transmitted off the unit.
Moore points to both on-road and off-road driving as operational environments, including situations where GPS may be less accessible or more problematic, such as tunnels and desert areas. The promise is not to replace all tracking infrastructure with a single technique, but to provide navigation continuity when satellite reception drops out. On a ground vehicle, even brief interruptions can introduce ambiguity if the system lacks a way to maintain and update its route estimate.
One of the co-founders, Brett Harrison, recounted using the technology during an approximately 1,300-mile trip from Austin to Laguna Beach, California. According to Harrison, the system maintained positioning throughout the entire journey, while traditional GPS experienced numerous interruptions. This is a company-provided demonstration, not an independent assessment or a test equivalent to military deployment: environmental conditions, electronic threats, and US Army vehicle requirements are clearly different from those of a road trip. However, it remains a concrete example of the kind of continuity Tern claims to provide.
A contract that measures the startup's maturity
For Tern, the contract marks the transition from a technology proposed as a solution to an actual supply deal destined for the military. Harrison, a military veteran, linked the project's inception to his own experience in Afghanistan, where he served on a special forces task force. The company says it aimed from the outset for a product that could be deployed at scale and used in the field, avoiding stopping at a mere technical demonstration.
The deal's financial value, $11.26 million, lends weight to this phase, but does not allow one to deduce either the number of vehicles or the duration of the rollout. Vehicle models, units involved, accuracy requirements demanded by the US Army, and delivery timelines have not been disclosed. These are crucial details for understanding whether the order will be a limited adoption, an extensive operational trial, or the foundation for future contracts.
The army's choice should therefore be seen less as a definitive verdict on replacing GPS and more as an investment in redundancy. To operate safely, a military system cannot rely on a single positioning channel, especially when that channel is visible, widespread, and vulnerable to attack. Tern is trying to carve out a niche in this space with a product that leverages what the vehicle already knows about itself and its own movement.
In the coming months, the most significant test will be in the field. The technology will need to demonstrate not only that it can maintain tracking under favorable conditions, but that it can provide reliable guidance on military vehicles, on unstructured routes, and in the presence of deliberate interference. The US Army contract makes Tern a case to watch precisely because it moves the debate on GPS resilience from intentions to a concrete procurement.
