It’s Soon All Over for Loran-C

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) posted a notice in the Federal Register February 7 certifying that termination of the Loran-C signal will not adversely affect the safety of maritime navigation and that decommission will begin on February 8 with all Loran stations expected to cease transmitting the Loran-C signal by October 1, 2010. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has certified that the Loran-C system infrastructure is not needed as a backup to the GPS system or to meet any other federal navigation requirement. LORAN-C was originally developed to provide radionavigation service for U.S. coastal waters & was later expanded to include complete coverage of the continental U.S. as well as most of Alaska.

According to the Federal Register statement, the Loran-C system was not established as, nor was it intended to be, a viable systemic backup for GPS. With respect to transportation — including aviation, commercial maritime, rail, and highway modes — the Department of Transportation has determined that sufficient alternative navigation aids currently exist in the event of a loss of GPS-based services, and therefore Loran currently is not needed as a back-up navigation aid for transportation safety-of-life users, the agencies have concluded.

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