Bush Prepares for Possible GPS Shutdown

[ShawnCowden]

Bush Prepares for Possible GPS Shutdown

White House - AP

By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) has ordered plans for
temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites
during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the
navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.

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.

The military increasingly uses GPS technology to move troops across
large areas and direct bombs and missiles. Any government-ordered
shutdown or jamming of the GPS satellites would be done in ways to limit
disruptions to navigation and related systems outside the affected area,
the White House said.

"This is not something you would do lightly," said James A. Lewis,
director of technology policy for the Washington-based Center for
Strategic and International Studies. "It's clearly a big deal. You have
to give them credit for being so open about what they're going to do."

President Clinton (news - web sites) abandoned the practice in May 2000
of deliberately degrading the accuracy of civilian navigation signals, a
technique known as "selective availability."

The White House said it will not reinstate that practice, but said the
president could decide to disable parts of the network for national
security purposes.

The directives to the Defense Department and the Homeland Security
Department were part of a space policy that Bush signed this month. It
designates the GPS network as a critical infrastructure for the U.S.
government. Part of the new policy is classified; other parts were
disclosed Wednesday.

The White House said the policies were aimed at improving the stability
and performance of the U.S. navigation system, which Bush pledged will
continue to be made available for free.

The U.S. network is comprised of more than two dozen satellites that act
as beacons, sending location-specific radio signals that are recognized
by devices popular with motorists, hikers, pilots and sailors.

Bush also said the government will make the network signals more
resistant to deliberate or inadvertent jamming.

___

On the Net:

Office of Science & Technology Policy: www.ostp.gov

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=703&e=6&u=/ap/20041216/\
ap_on_go_pr_wh/positioning_satellites

 

[scooby750]

An excellent plan. As long as it comes too a situation like that I would have no problem with it.

Scoob

 

[Colin9690]

Same here. Only if it is a REAL emergency. In some airplanes, pilots forget how to navigate because they are so addicted to GPS. I've flown with people that are so GPS addicted, they would get lost without it. By, the way, we have a bunch of navigational instruments, even in small private planes.

 

[INDY72]

Not to mention the HUGE amount of GPS equipment in use by Public Safety Agencies.

 

[mlevin]

Same here. Only if it is a REAL emergency. In some airplanes, pilots forget how to navigate because they are so addicted to GPS. I've flown with people that are so GPS addicted, they would get lost without it. By, the way, we have a bunch of navigational instruments, even in small private planes.

VORs and NDBs work very well.

 

[poltergeisty]

Oh boy I just seen on the news tractors running on gps. This is weird because I know there spouse to make a whole different gps system because of the jamming concepts out there. Read it in popular mechanics or popular science.

 

[Chris-M]

Not to worry in the cockpit. The navigation system common in airliners that use GPS for IFR flights monitor the system and if it gets outside of a specific parameter we get an 'unable RNP' message. Basically there are different RNP (Required NAV Performance) criteria for different regimes of flight. The closer to the ground you are the tighter (lower numerically) the RNP limit is. GPS is only used on specific approaches, and again we know before we even shoot the approach if the RNP is within limits, and it it goes outside of the limits, ie during a shutdown, we automatically execute a 'missed approach' anyway. The navigation systems use GPS to update the RNP since it is the most accurate, and DME/DME or VOR/DME etc as backups.
Also in our flight paperwork we get NOTAMS that will include specific GPS or ground based NAVAIDS that are 'unusable' and we can go into the computer and tell it to ignore those specifically, or turn the whole GPS receiver off and revert to VORs.

So in a nutshell, if the GPS satellites are shut down with or without warning, you won't be hearing about plane crashes on the news.

The local county Public Safety system here uses GPS to keep track of various vehicles such as Law Enforcement. I have no idea what the system is called. Recently they had some serious computer issues and the dispatchers didn't know where their officers were, the MDT's weren't working, etc. For several days afterwards erroneous dispatch messages would be sent out that were actually sent days earlier, and ghost GPS position reports were a problem too. The dispatchers were unable to determine the location of an officer until that unit had logged into the system. I'd love to be able to see it all in action one of these days.

 

[ECPD279]

I'll keep my sectionals and my E6B thank you very much. And yes Mo, VOR and NDB do work quite well, except that they are not teaching ADF to new pilots because they are trying to do away with the NDB's. Why? Because of GPS of course!!!

 

[ShawnCowden]

wonder if this will affect aprs ham radio mode ??

 

[STiMULi]

wonder if this will affect aprs ham radio mode ??

APRS = GPS = YES

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...

But it's not likely gunna happen. The only way to disable certain geographical areas based on current technologies is to jam the SAT signals in the local area from a groundbased location. That would be effective in heavily populated metro areas.

They could probably rent tower space from of the AM or FM stations in a given area for best coverage. The GPS carrier frequencies are 1227.6 MHz and 1575.42 MHz.

Otherwise it would involve shutting down too many beacons at one time and the entire network would be affected.

A degradation of the GPS info would not cause much harm except in Search and Rescue operations in generally difficult access areas.


Here is some good gps info...

http://gps.faa.gov/

 

[N9LLO]

I think what George is trying to tell us is if they have intellegence that indicates a potential threat that involves the use of the GPS system they can get the EC135's airborne to do the localized jamming, if the situation warrents they will be ready to degrade or pull the plug entirely on very short notice.

Think about all the technoids flying/driving around in circles trying to get a "fix" AHHHHHH


Chris
N9LLO

 

[STiMULi]

Like flys getting hit in mid-air by a fresh spray of RAID!

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

This is really old news. One of the conditions for turning off Selective Availablity (SA) during the Clinton Administration was the Military putting methods of jamming GPS in place. It was pointed out when SA was turned off that the Government could turn SA back on during an emergency, jam the signals locally, etc. That is one reason why the Europeans decided to build their own system.

73 Eric

 

[STiMULi]

Hello,

This is really old news.

What you are talking about is old news, this however is new news.

Read here...

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=gps+bush&btnG=Search+News

....and see.

I was actually waiting for someone to say WTLY

 

[AngelFire91]

I'll keep my sectionals and my E6B thank you very much. And yes Mo, VOR and NDB do work quite well, except that they are not teaching ADF to new pilots because they are trying to do away with the NDB's. Why? Because of GPS of course!!!

I second the sectionals and E6B, Plus I would take an NDB approach over a GPS one anyday. I personally don't trust GPS for navigation, If I'm flying Actual IFR and need to do an approach I never even look at my GPS unless it's my last resort, Give me VOR/ILS/NDB!

Ok, Call me old school I don't care, but I've seen some people that can't even get from point A to point B without the use of a GPS. I was checking a guy out on a 182 one day and he refused to fly it because it didn't have a GPS in it and he wouldn't be able to go on long trips with it so it wasn't worth it. :shock:

Kevin

 

[ECPD279]

Hell, half the fun of flying is folding, refolding, and re-refolding a sectional chart while remembering to switch tanks every 30 minutes, managing radios, maintaining altitude and airspeed, watching engine instruments, checking weather, looking for traffic, spotting landmarks, etc....

It's called CRM! Cockpit Resource Management!

A GPS is just one more thing to keep track of, because if you rely totally on your GPS and don't keep an idea of where you are on paper what are you going to do when you lose your electrical system and your GPS takes a dump on you. You'd better be able to figure out where you are right NOW! I've said it before, and I'll say it again..... I'll keep my sectionals.

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

This is really old news.

What you are talking about is old news, this however is new news.

Read here...

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=gps+bush&btnG=Search+News

....and see.

I was actually waiting for someone to say WTLY

The only thing I see that is new is a bureaucratic reshuffle and updating of a plan from 1996. The news media asked about shutdown of the GPS system and then treated the answer as a new idea of the current administration. I am just saying that disabling GPS is nothing new. If you read towards the end of the Year 2000 statement on SA Elimination at:
http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/html/0053_2.html
"Additionally, we have demonstrated the capability to selectively deny GPS signals on a regional basis when our national security is threatened. This regional approach to denying navigation services is consistent with the 1996 plan to discontinue the degradation of civil and commercial GPS service globally through the SA technique."

During a Summer 2004 NATO exercise GPS Jamming was used.

From my Pilot Training I learnt that it is foolish to depend on one method of navigation. Anyone who cannot use anything but a GPS should not have a Pilot's License. Electronic navigation systems fail.

73 Eric

 

[STiMULi]

During a Summer 2004 NATO exercise GPS Jamming was used

Telling the public that it would happen in that manner is what is new.

Imagine the whining that will go one in the media when it happens. If a Republican President still is office when it happens he will have flipped the switch himself and any trouble that happened would have been at his hands. If not it would have been the Republican led congress that did it. In any event it will be top billing for months. I can see the reporters now, purposely crashing into things or cruising into the bad sections of Chicago, Maimi, New York, L.A. or the Appalachians mountains

(Dubbin - Is this one of those threads that should have been in the RR Tavern Too? )

 

[N9LLO]

They are drawing up plans to do this on "executive command" At this time such command and control does not exist! It has become VERY necessary to be able to do this.

Chris

 

[CapnJon]

GPS...

After 20 years in the Coast Guard using the Omega and the Loran system's, our new "Navi-guesser's" should learn to fly from the "seat or their pant's" for a change! 8)