Austin-based navigation startup Tern has secured an $11.26 million contract from the U.S. Army to deploy its GPS-alternative technology in military vehicles, the company announced in September 2026.
Tern’s system works by passively reading data generated by a vehicle’s onboard diagnostics and processing it locally — without GPS — to produce real-time positioning, routing, and navigation. The hardware consists of a device that plugs into a vehicle’s diagnostics board, wired to a tablet that serves as the soldier’s interface. The company describes the product as “Google Maps for the battlefield.”
The contract was awarded to Tern co-founders Shaun Moore, who serves as CEO, and Brett Harrison, a military veteran who served with a special operations task force in Afghanistan. Harrison recently used the technology on a 1,300-mile drive from Austin to Laguna Beach, California, during which Tern’s system maintained positioning throughout the trip while traditional GPS cut out dozens of times.
The Army is turning to Tern amid a documented rise in GPS disruptions, particularly in the Middle East and in airspace above Ukraine and Russia. The U.S. military has also reportedly experimented with GPS jamming, which may have contributed to a fatal medevac plane crash earlier this year. Congress and President Trump, during his first term, have both pursued efforts to develop navigation technologies that do not rely on GPS.
Beyond reliability, Tern’s closed system may offer a security advantage: because it does not depend on external signals, it is harder for adversaries to jam or disrupt. Moore said public awareness of GPS vulnerability remains low, with most consumers assuming the system is more dependable than it is.
Tern declined to specify the exact scale of the Army deployment.
Source: TechCrunch