GPS Receiver Cryptography Key Delivery Leveraging NSA’s Key Management Infrastructure (KMI)

ABSTRACT:The Global Positioning System (GPS) Community currently uses the Electronic Key Management System (EKMS) to distribute GPS keys worldwide to the fielded User Equipment (UE), whether U.S. or coalition owned. While EKMS continues to serve the community, military GPS security features are sometimes neglected due to the effort required to distribute keys securely. Manual updates for GPS enabled munitions, for example, become arduous and dangerous. During Phase I, we demonstrated working hardware and generated multiple commercialization opportunities within the Government and Industry. The proposed Phase II prototype development enhances these Phase I concepts and furthers our current Internal Research (IR&D) efforts. Furthermore, as part of Phase II, we will continue to define the security and lifecycle-cost gaps between current EKMS and future KMI enabled GPS UEs to ensure the Air Force a thoughtful understanding of the upcoming transition’s impact.BENEFIT:This Phase II effort will provide the Government better community understanding of KMI’s impact on GPS UE, seamless key transfer directly to GPS receivers, multiple commercialization opportunities, demonstrable technology which takes full advantage of KMI’s capabilities for GPS UE insertion, and innovative technical descriptions & requirements for KMI-aware GPS technologies.