China and The Economist

[Donut]

Originally posted by Ronn_Bman: quote: Originally posted by Seraph: Because US companies supply a fair amount of goodies to Europe, and US companies are/were pressured to refuse to allow for the possibility of a 2nd GPS-like system. A GPS system that only worked with half of their equipment wouldn't be particulary useful in a military application.

Sorry, but that excuse doesn't really wash.

Even if it did, would it be the fault of the US that the EU doesn't have the technology? [/QUOTE]We do have the technology and are developing our own GPS system (in collaboration with China despite the pressure from the US not to do so. it's called Galileo.

[Donut]

Originally posted by Ronn_Bman: Why don't the Chinese spend those wasted space billions on their own SDI instead if their vulnerability is the reason for a space program? That would certainly make more sense from a defensive point of view. In fact, it seems that anyone who's worried about the US's SDI intentions would do the same.

Surely the ability to have men in orbit makes the development of SDI simpler.

[Ronn_Bman]

Originally posted by Donut: We do have the technology and are developing our own GPS system (in collaboration with China despite the pressure from the US not to do so. it's called Galileo.

I thought as much, but Seraph's post suggested otherwise.

[Ronn_Bman]

Originally posted by Donut: Surely the ability to have men in orbit makes the development of SDI simpler.

Absolutely but going to the moon doesn't.

[Ronn_Bman]

As always skunk, you provide one with alot to think about. [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Timber Loftis]

Good post, Skunk, thanks for bringing the info together.

Who can blame the EU for not wanting to use the US GPS system? Military GPS hardward is accurate to a very close distance -- I once heard a few meters. However, that technology will not work on civilian GPS, which as Skunk mentions has been made deliberately less accurate (not exactly inaccurate) for "security" reasons.

[Ronn_Bman]

We've been learning quite a bit about GPS since the cell phone companies are being required to provide location with their 911 data. We just had a class last week in fact.

Currently the US employs 24 satellites for civilian GPS service which operate on two frequencies. The military has an additional undisclosed amount of satellites that are not shared, but make GPS for military use much more accurate than anything seen outside the military. Nearby Guilford County Communications in NC(Greensboro)once tracked a cell phone during testing to within a matter of inches, but the accuracy depends on how many of the 24 satellites you can hit.

Yes, the military does have the ability to control the accuracy, but there has to be a reason. Elevated Security Threat Level anyone?

[Night Stalker]

Just for clarification on GPS. The error signal is no longer injected into the GPS signal since it's declassification a couple of years ago. The previous civilian resolution of GPS was 25 m (that's with the error signal, more than accurate for open navigation but not targeting). Since the declassification of the signal, all GPS recievers have the capability to resolve to maximum persission.