This paper was presented at the 14th annual meeting of the International Omega Association, held at Long Beach, California in October 1989.

The integration of Omega and GPS sensors into a single navigation system offers the advantages of good accuracy under almost all signal conditions, low capital investment, and certifiable worldwide navigation. The accuracy of the existing Omega network can be progressively improved as GPS satellite coverage is fully implemented. This is done by having the GPS system update the Omega navigator. Eventually, the same equipment can provide full GPS navigation accuracy but with Omega as a back-up.

This paper proposes a method of further improving the overall accuracy and reliability of Omega-GPS navigation. The conceptsof Omega-GPS integration, interoperability, modes of operation, and Kalman filter data fusion are presented. Four interoperability modes of operation and their ability to improve navigation reliability are also discussed.

In 1983, the Netherlands proposed to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) at the 48th Session of the Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) that the Organization should place on the work programme a study of a worldwide satellite navigation system for marine use.

Navigation aids in use today have their origin in mainly military operational requirements for navigation accuracy, coverage and integrity. They have also been directed at the needs of air and sea operations.

This contribution is an updated version of a paper presented at the thirteenth annual meeting of the International Omega Association. It discusses the extraction of directional as well as positional information from the Omega signal pattern. The two outputs might be combined to form a self-contained, Omega-based, ship or aircraft navigation system, or the directional information could be fed to a conventional gyro-magnetic compass as an alternative to the magnetic input. Directional information from other VLF transmissions could also be used.