Joint Forces Command trialing hybrid GPS technology
By Darren Murph 
posted Apr 3rd 2007 2:40PM
posted Apr 3rd 2007 2:40PM
Taking geo-location services to a level beyond what vanilla GPS can provide has been looked at a time or two before, and apparently, the Joint Forces Command is hoping to implement a similar system on the battlefield. In a partnership with L-3 Communications, the JFC hopes to "develop a hybrid tracking system using various navigation sensors and radio waves that could be used when GPS isn't available, such as inside buildings or underground in tunnels or caves." The objectives are twofold, as it hopes to assist "field commanders keep track of individual troops as they carry out missions," and moreover, to give soldiers the ability to accurately and consistently track their own in order to keep "friendly fire deaths" from occurring. If all goes as planned, several prototypes will be loosed on the Marine Corps by May of next year, and if this here technology adds a dash of omnipresence to the men and women in uniform, it could be deployed en masse shortly thereafter.[Via DefenseTech]
Isn't what the Marines in Aliens had when they went skulking in tunnels and underground lairs? At least the real version won't rely on DOS.
When I think of Commanders being able to keep track of where their troops are, and preventing friendly fire, I also think of a bunch of emitting radio signals that could be locked onto or tracked by non-friendlies. If I can see you based on the radio waves you're emitting, what prevents someone else from triangulating the source, even if they can't read the encrypted locational data being transmitted?
is it just me, or does every tech story involving the USA war-related?
I've seen this prototype at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. L-3 came by and shown it to us (computer science department). It runs Windows. Its so cool. It uses planes and such to network each other.
Think GRAW and GRAW 2
For one, most of the tech we use now was originally made for the military, and then it trickles down to the public. That's why the tech you see coming from the US seems to have a military bent.
And those guys will be TX radio signals anyway from their radio. It will be more frequent than from a tactical radio, but as the military becomes more network centric, it will happen. I'd rather be part of a network where the enemy might be able to find me easier, than not be part of one where my friend thinks I'm an enemy.