GPS, Bush plans GPS shutdown in national crisis
posted December 16th 2004 9:20AM
Given its widespread commercial use in everything from cellphones to cars, it's easy to forget that the global positioning system was created as a military application, and the satellites that it depends on are still owned and operated by the U.S. government. In case you need a reminder, President Bush has furnished one, in the form of a plan to shut the whole GPS system down in the event of a national crisis in order to prevent its use by terrorists. The White House has also ordered the Pentagon to put together a plan to block overseas GPS access selectively during military operations, and apply similar jamming to non-U.S. systems, such as the EU's forthcoming Galileo program. Though administration officials insist that a shutdown would happen under only the most extreme circumstances, you may want to brush up on your map and compass-reading skills and memorize some escape routes if you've become wholly dependent on your Navman for getting around.
Is this really surprising? No, the US military owns GPS and has always had the right to turn it off when they feel like it. My cousin was sailing in the middle of the Mediteranian when GPS was shut down for Operation Desert Storm.
I'm always dissapointed by the outcry when the government creates a plan for how to deal with extreme situations. In my opinion they had damn well better have a plan for every conceivable situation, that's what we pay them for.
What does FAA say about it? How about commercial planes?? Are they gonna crash into one another or misnavigate to White House??
How will I ever find my emergency evacuation route without my satellite guidance? I can barely find my out of the garage without it.
Does the plan also call to shut down fire departments, in case a terrorist tries to use them to put out a fire at their terror-house? You don't want fire departments accidentally helping terrorists, do you?
Why would the FAA care? Planes don't use GPS, they use radar, some private pilots carry em but they aren't certified (I am not a pilot)
This is not a big deal. This needs to happen. Some people are like why....well, it's pretty easy to get data out of GPS's and you can build a missile with all of the shelf components and fire it off with a waypoint for where you want it to go. Without a GPS, the enemy has to resort to other means for missile guidance. We would not want a country or a terrorist to use our own advantage against us.
One has to have an almost blinding faith towards the competence and ability of the US Government and its different branches to believe they would be able to shut down the GPS system in time to prevent a GPS guided whatnot from hitting its target after its launch has been detected. And that they would not shut down the system down whenever something that looks like a missile hits someone's radar screen.
"and you can build a missile with all of the shelf components and fire it off with a waypoint for where you want it to go"
Where exactly do you shop?
Um, planes are already using GPS.
http://www.faa.gov/asw/asw005/fact_sep99-2.html
"When the first phase of WAAS is operational in September 2000, pilots will be able to make precision GPS-guided landings throughout roughly half of the continental United States."
And with the new Free Flight methods being developed, reliance on GPS will be even heavier. Do your homework.
While you can use GPS you can't use it as the sole means of navigation.
Similar problem, Amy. After the permanent neck disfigurement set in, my ONLY OPTION for navigation is to use my GPS to move from room to room. If they shut it down, well, I may have to rig up a system of mirrors in order to see where I'm going.
Three words:
Politics. Of. Fear.
This isn't news. This isn't a plan. This is another ploy to get words like "terrorist" and "attack" into the newswire.
Koz,
Planes don't use GPS, although some pilots do.
AFAIK, there isn't much you can fly without knowing how to navigate without a GPS. Flight training doesn't even mention GPS. You must know how to navigate your (non GPS) equipment in order to get your license.
While it's probably true that some pilots have come to rely a lot on the GPS for their navigation, they are trained to navigate without.
So why should they get to shut down the european one too? It's just another case of America saying "f*** you" to the rest of the world.
GPS is merely a navigation tool. Should we deny the rest of the world food, as that could aid them in terrorist activities? Oh wait, we already do...
Politics...of...FEEEEAARRRR?
Uh, oh...you've triggered my liberal buzzword regurgitation syndro...HALLIBURTON! WARMONGERS! QUAGMIRE! DISENFRANCHISEMENT!
Whew! That was one of my less severe attacks, fortunately for the forum.
Большей глупости сделать трудно, он бы еще запретил пользоваться интернетом и телефоном, смотреть телевизор, и много чего можно еще продумать
another ploy to get words like "terrorist" and "attack" into the newswire.
hehe, I knew there would be at least one lefty whining about Bush on this thread. Especially since the title of the entry starts with "Bush plans GPS shutdown...". That's enough to get your blood boiling right there.
All politics is fear. "Vote or die" Charlie Rengal's Draft bill and Rock the Vote scaring kids to the polls. Politicians fear voters and special interest groups, so they pander to them. Voters fear politicians, so they badmouth them. We just have to accept that just like we have to accept the possibility of GPS being taken away from us in the event of a terrorist attack. Few guarantees in life. Live it up.
"Why would the FAA care? Planes don't use GPS, they use radar, some private pilots carry em but they aren't certified (I am not a pilot)"
All modern airliners use GPS as part of their flight management computer systems. It's totally integrated into the airplane; it's not a separate system. So a pilot dumps a bunch of data into the computer saying "this is where we're going, through airway X, and we have this much fuel and this much of a payload" and the computer then spits out a complete flight plan and links it to the auto-pilot system for navigation. The pilots take off, engage the auto-pilot and the FMC does the rest - it selects the best climb rate, the most efficient use of thrust, the most economical speeds, and the route based on GPS.
There are also new separation rules that have come about in part because of GPS. Though if the GPS system were turned off, I would guess they could just fall back to the old rules (which require a greater amount of separation between planes in the air).
Of course, not every airplane is all that new, so not every airplane is even equipped with an FMC. And airplanes that have FMC's still have the old radio navigation as a backup. So planes would still fly, but there would definitely be some disruptions. GPS has enabled more airplanes to be in the air at any given time, so no doubt going back to the old pre-GPS rules would mean lengthy delays all over the world.
"So why should they get to shut down the european one too? It's just another case of America saying "f*** you" to the rest of the world." - RhodriM
Yeah, buddy, like the rest of the world is entitled to use US government property. You honestly can't be serious.
-V
Jamming Galileo would be a declaration of war. Good so maybe it is a anther small step for Europeans to wake up and see with whom they are allied. Bad bad choice. The biggest terrorists are sitting in Washington. All they care is world domination. Time to stop that
nojetlag.. if you really believe that, I'd have to assume you were French.
"Yeah, buddy, like the rest of the world is entitled to use US government property. You honestly can't be serious.
-V"
Galileo is the property of the European Union.
Europeans paid for it. Europeans built it. Personally I would feel very aggrieved if the US military started messing with it.
We are building it for exactly the reason that we are fed up with GPS going on and off everytime the US military is up to something.
If the US starts messing with it, I hope the EC applies trade sanctions in revenge at the waste of European tax payers money by the US.
Please people. Understand the facts before you start babling. Jamming non-US systems, meaning the european Galileo and the russian Glonass, does (most likely) not mean that those systems will stop working on a global scale. Now, I didnt construct (if it has even been constructed yet) what ever jamming device the US is planning, but, the usual way of jamming a signal is spamming the frequency(perhaps several) in a particular area. That would mean that if you receive Galileo signals at 900 Mhz (just a random number), then to jam it, you just send out a lot of spam/"false signals", in the area, where you want to jam it. The same way you jam mobile phones or radio.
I don´t know why this is news to everyone - the use of GPS has always been on the understanding that in the event of a national (from a US viewpoint) crisis, the military could degrade or shut down the GPS system, either over a certain area or globally.
Otherwise, why would the Europeans even bother with Galileo? Good idea though, if you ask me. The civillian world needs something that it can rely on.
I am a farmer and, like a majority of modern farmers, rely on gps to operate my equipment. If I cannot spray crops when they need sprayed, yields go down. If a majority of farmers' yields go down, it's going to come back to haunt the nation. Higher food prices, imbalanced trade, increased dependence on fossil fuel, and on and on... If I end a year with untreated pests, their offspring will be waiting for my crops the following year or five or fifty (or much longer in the case of some weeds). I hope it never comes to that. I bet there are a lot of other different gps applications that nobody considers that would be negatively affected.
them turning it off isnt a big deal, its them turning it back on so i can find my way home that counts.