Long before GPS jamming became a daily headline, Inertial Labs was already building the inertial sensors that would define the industry. That 25-year head start was the backdrop when Inside GNSS caught up with the company, now part of VIAVI Solutions, at Eurosatory 2026 in Paris to discuss the latest developments in assured positioning, navigation, and timing (APNT).
A Quarter-Century of Navigation Expertise
Sales Engineer Jackson Williams called it “a 25-year overnight success.” Though that still undersells the success.
Since its founding in Northern Virginia in 2001, Inertial Labs has been at the forefront of inertial navigation technology, helping shape the industry’s approach to resilient, GNSS-independent positioning well before it became a defense-wide priority. That legacy took on a new scale in 2025, when VIAVI Solutions acquired the company, pairing decades of engineering pedigree with broader reach.
Today, Inertial Labs has over 200 Customers Worldwide, 1,000+ Devices in Operation, and 1,000,000+ Operational Hours in the Field.
Pioneering Sensor Diversity Before It Was Standard Practice
That early start demonstrates how Inertial Labs approaches today’s GNSS-denied navigation challenges. Rather than relying on a single sensor, the company fuses inertial data with radio positioning, line-of-sight measurements, and time-of-flight/time-of-arrival techniques, customizing the mix mission by mission. Which approach, Williams says, comes from decades of hands-on customer work. This modular philosophy is central to the company’s INS-NV sensor fusion platform, which lets integrators tailor aiding data sources to their specific mission profile.
IRINS-DM: Iridium Meets 25 Years of Inertial Know-How
The interview also covered IRINS-DM, which pairs Inertial Labs’ tactical-grade inertial sensors with Iridium’s low-Earth-orbit satellite network, giving platforms a resilient fallback when GNSS signals are jammed, spoofed, or lost entirely.
Inertial Labs showcased its navigation systems on-site at Eurosatory 2026, giving attendees a firsthand look at technology built on 25 years of pioneering work in assured PNT.
Read the full interview on Inside GNSS.
