The GPS-Denied Economy: Why Navigation Is the Next Infrastructure Layer

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — AINewsWire Editorial Coverage : GPS can no longer be trusted. Lost-signal incidents jumped 220% between 2021 and 2024, and the trend is accelerating. The drone industry’s default fix — bolting more sensors, chips and software onto every aircraft — works one airframe at a time and stalls the moment a fleet grows past a handful. SPARC AI Inc. (CSE: SPAI) (OTCQB: SPAIF) ( profile ) takes the opposite approach. Its Overwatch Positioning Network moves positioning off the aircraft entirely: a drone sends the telemetry it already generates to SPARC AI’s servers and gets latitude, longitude and time back in under a second. No new hardware. No added weight. One network serving an entire fleet at once. In a defense, security and commercial drone market projected to exceed $100 billion over the next decade, that software-defined, per-device subscription model puts SPARC AI at the front of next-generation geolocation and targeting, alongside established names such as Red Cat Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: RCAT), ZenaTech Inc. (NASDAQ: ZENA), AeroVironment Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV) and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. (NASDAQ: KTOS).

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GPS interference used to be rare and confined to active conflict zones. Not anymore. The International Air Transport Association (“IATA”) reports lost-signal incidents climbed 220% between 2021 and 2024, with geopolitical tensions pointing to more ahead. The response has been institutional: IATA and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency jointly released an action plan to build lasting resilience into civil aviation rather than manage incidents one at a time.

Operators reached the same verdict. OPSGROUP, representing pilots, safety managers and airlines, convened more than 950 aviation professionals for a six-week workgroup on GPS spoofing, producing a 128-page report on how far the problem has spread. GPS disruption is no longer a handful of trouble spots; it’s a standing condition that commercial aviation, shipping and defense now plan around.

Governments are moving too. The United States issued an executive order on responding to disruptions to positioning, navigation and timing services. The Department of Homeland Security published a Resilient PNT Conformance Framework defining how equipment must perform when GPS is denied. And the U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) maintains active maritime advisories on GPS interference and spoofing across multiple regions worldwide, proof the problem spans every sector and theater.

The industry’s first instinct was to pile more capability onto each aircraft: extra sensors, upgraded inertial navigation, new onboard software. It works — one platform at a time. The scaling wall appears the moment an operator runs more than a few aircraft. Every added component needs its own integration, its own test cycle and its own certification for each airframe type, then ongoing maintenance for the life of the fleet.