Bush to consider shutting down GPS in extreme emergency

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...0041215/ap_on_go_pr_wh/positioning_satellites


Partial extract:

" Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come
under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush
administration official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the
White House on condition of anonymity.

The GPS system is vital to commercial aviation and marine shipping.

The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans
to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S.
navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The
European Union (news - web sites) is developing a $4.8 billion
program, called Galileo. "

 

Keep your Map, Compass and Altimeter skills up to date.

 

Will he be shutting down the electrical grid, too? After all,
electricity can be extremely useful to terrorists.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Huh? AFAIK it's only to be used as a navigational aid, commercial and
private airplanes still are required to have other means of navigation
on board...


Juergen Nieveler

 

Shutting down the non military use of GPS signals in a national emergency
makes sense to me and I support it.

Just another example of why one should always carry another means of
navigation when it is of vital importance. When I am hunting deep in the
woods, I still carry a Silva compass and a paper printout of the area I am
hunting in. On my boat, I have two fixed mounted high quality compasses and
know how to find my way back home the "hard way". I would never let my life
depend on a single electronic navigational device. They can and will fail at
some point. Every electronic device has some mean time between failures.

I seem to remember that it was always reserved within the federal plans to
disable the GPS signals for non military use in the event of a national
emergency. I seem to remember that was clearly stated when SA was turned off
under the Clinton administration. Does not surprise me at all. I am more
than happy to make the trade for the unlikely chance that it will be
disrupted in a national emergency versus having the SA reinstated.

Besides, if we had such a national emergency that required shutting off the
GPS signals, I would find myself glued to a TV set rather than out hunting
or fishing.

I just pray such an emergency never comes about. In that event, I think we
would have bigger problems than me finding my way back to my car or home
port.

Regards
JGS

 

Many airports have *only* GPS approaches. The FAA has been advocating
GPS as sole means of navigation, but although this hasn't happened, if
the GPS system were to be disabled the result would be chaos in the US
aviation system. Imagine the hundreds of supertankers in US waters
daily, which now rely almost exclusively on GPS, being deprived of
navigation capability. Can you say oil spill? Cutting off the GPS
system is simply not possible, and Bush is stupid to even suggest it. He
suffers, as always, from acute CDD, as do most of his advisors.

 

Being required to have other means of navigation on board doesn't mean
that the usual means of navigation are not vital. Many two-engine
planes can fly on one engine, but that doesn't mean that it's acceptable
to shut down one engine.

 

Shutting down non-military use of GPS _IS_ a national emergency in
itself. It's like shutting off electricity.

At some point the cure is worse than the disease.

This isn't about failures; it's about deliberate sabotage.

Neither is really acceptable.

In a national emergency, electricity needs to be turned off. Terrorists
could use electricity to carry out their plans.

 

That's BS. All vehicles, commercial and military, ships as well as
aircrafts and roadvehicles, must have alternate ways of navigation to
GPS. That will be ILS and VOR for aircrafts and seamaps and compass on
sea. No airport will use GPS for final approach because it's not
accurate enough. The FAA will never advocate any sole mean of
navigation. Supertankers do not exclusively (not even close) rely on GPS.

--
Hans Fleischmann

-nl
PGP-KeyID: 0x676FB35B - A26E A57D C006 C19B 9A42 A688 C241 C255 676F B35B
+31650525455

 

And the interstate highway system--closing the highways that will
slow those terrorists down!

 

Sorry, you are too late with your idea. He had already implemented it
and forced us back to the Dark Ages! (Blue State voter)

 

That is the stupidest thing I have ever read. Did you forget all commercial
and private airline traffic was shut down after 9/11. We sure as hell
didn't need GPS on the ground and we don't rely solely on it when in
flight. God, I hope you don't think I would get lost flying from Pittsburgh
to Denver if I didn't have GPS. We are a lot better equipped than that.

And you're wrong on the tankers, they do not rely solely on GPS. There will
be no oil spills. You're speaking out of a total lack of knowledge.

This whole topic is blown way out of proportion. Compared to a nuclear
device being set off in a highly populated area (say Manhattan), that would
devastate this country far more than shutting off GPS for a while.

This whole topic strikes me of sour grapes because Kerry lost. You people
will say anything (no matter how uninformed you are) to discredit the Bush
administration. Maybe you could get Dan Rather to come up with some memos
to support your wild claims.

 

Think of the impact on network timing, time dissemination, surveying,
mining, robotic earth moving, asset management, parcel tracking, agriculture,
fault monitoring, mapping, air traffic safety and even the majority of GPS
receivers used by our troupes! Think about it! Shutting it off in time of
crisis (or ever) make no sense what-so-ever.

 

But AFAIK GPS isn't allowed to be the primary means of navigation -
it's only a navigation AID, commercial aircraft still need to use
VOR/ILS to navigate, so turning off GPS would simply mean that they
can't backcheck the radionavigation data anymore.

As for the other poster who worried about supertankers: Pilots help...
and every captain of a large ship should be able to read a map.


Juergen Nieveler

 

NTP servers exist. Much easier to use than GPS, too...

Can easily done by radio. I don't know about the US, but in Europe
there's a long-wave radio station sending the time signal (Known as
DCF77). Works great and is very reliable

REAL Surveyors don't need GPS, they can manage happily without. They'll
simply use maps, sights and poles again like they did for over 2000
years.

You get GPS signals in mineshafts? What receiver do you use?

SCNR ;-)

Not really in use THAT much, is it? Besides, they can simply stop
paying for GPS use... oh, they don't pay? Then they can't expect any
guarantees on uptime.

What kind of asset management needs GPS?

All parcel tracking sites I've seen only tell "package was checked into
warehouse XY", not a GPS-generated location, BICBW. I don't really see
that as life-threatening, though - you don't NEED to know the exact
location of a parcel, knowing that it's en route with driver XY should
be enough for most purposes.

Farmers can EASILY work without GPS. Sure, they can safe some money if
they know that THIS spot needs a bit less fertilizer, but working
without GPS they would still produce food.

Geologists use DGPS anyway, they'd probably simply set up more DGPS
stations and track the motion relative to those spots. Civilian GPS is
way too inacurate for geological work, the signal drifts far more than
most continents

See surveying. Map makers use satelite pictures and orient them based
on known points located by surveyors - no real need for GPS. Besides,
GPS wouldn't be shut down forever, and I guess we can live without
making new maps for a couple of weeks...

As has been mentioned before, air traffic safety doesn't depend on GPS.

Back when I was in the Army, basic training DID include map reading...
but of course that was in ancient times, 11 years ago

Besides, if the military can't get military GPS receivers, it's their
own fault...

Depends on what kind of crisis you're talking about. And of course GPS
has the capability to turn the civilian signal of on a regional basis...

Juergen Nieveler

 

Also MSF from Rugby (UK) on 60kHz. I have several clocks in the house
synchronised to this. There is a similar system in the US but I don't
recall its callsign or frequency. WWV..?

Ivor

 

NTP is not going to help when synchonising 2 PABX's across a 100km
10Gbit fiber link.

And where do you think that main (stratum 1) NTP servers get their
time from?

DCF77 and similar long-wave radio systems produce time accurate in the
milliseconds, GPS in nanoseconds. Not comparable.

 

Wow DGPS without GPS, now why didn't I think of that!?!?

 

If the good guys have all these alternate means of navigation, why
wouldn't terrorists have the same? And if they have that, why shut down
GPS?

Doesn't anyone ever think these ideas through?

Either shutting off GPS has no effect on civilian navigation, in which
case it sure won't have any effect on terrorist navigation, or shutting
off GPS is disastrous for civilian navigation, in which case it is also
disastrous for terrorist navigation.

Either way, shutting off GPS either has no effect, or a catastrophic
effect.

 

WWVB in the US (Colorado) on 60 kHz (same frequency as MSF). WWVB is at the
same facility as WWV which does time on HF but WWVB broadcasts a different
signal format.