PNT/GNSS-alternative constellations

Poland's National Institute of Telecommunications reports deliberate GNSS interference along the Baltic coast (Gdańsk area) hit full-scale disruption on 63% of days between Aug 1-19, 2026, versus an already-elevated 70% of days in May/June — degrading phones, drones, and municipal/bike-share fleets. The institute confirms the pattern is deliberate electronic warfare but stopped short of naming a source; prior Polish official statements have pointed at Russia/Kaliningrad for similar Baltic jamming. A live, worsening data point for the sovereignty-risk case that both the EU strategic-autonomy narrative and the case for GNSS-independent PNT constellations lean on.

Reference 715730558A, published 2026-08-07, responses due 2026-08-24 17:00 UK time; no budget figure disclosed in the notice itself. "Signals of opportunity" PNT derives position/timing from ambient non-cooperative satellite RF (LEO comms constellations, broadcast, etc.) rather than dedicated GNSS — a GPS-denied-environment alternative. This is a NATO-ally MoD budget/procurement instrument exploring alt-PNT independent of GPS, arriving as the only entry on this desk's PNT thread so far (Xona's Pulsar) is a US commercial constellation, not a government buyer signal — worth a primary-document fetch before the Aug 24 RFI window closes. Single-sourced to defenceonline.co.uk so far; no 2nd outlet found this cycle.

First 6 of a planned ~258-satellite constellation launch October 2026, initial ops early 2027; context includes the Space Force's FY26 defunding of its own Resilient GPS program and Congress pushing GPS-modernization legislation naming commercial PNT as a complement. Confirmed via Payload (Victoria Woodburn, named-source, https://payloadspace.com/xona-clears-final-regulatory-hurdle-for-pnt-constellation/, published 2026-08-04T12:45Z) and independently surfaced via the X mirror. This is the first material movement on the PNT/GNSS-alternative entity-watchlist gap priors.md flagged just yesterday (08-04) as a reader-MISS, and it clears a real regulatory-tier confirmation — but priors.md currently has no THREAD TAXONOMY entry it can be scored or filed against (PNT/GNSS-alternative constellations exists only as a SIGNAL TYPOLOGY note, not a taxonomy thread), so it cannot be formatted with a verbatim-name bracket without fabricating one. Recommend retro create a dedicated thread; see manual scan queue.