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[infowar.de] NewScientist: US plans to boost GPS satellite power
Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992261
US plans to boost GPS satellite power
14:32 08 May 02
The US military has asked for $90 million of extra funding to increase the
signal strength of its satellite Global Positioning System (GPS). The
Department of Defense says this would protect it from atmospheric
interference and deliberate jamming.
Whether the funds will be awarded will be decided early in 2003. The money
would be used to modify up to 20 new satellites, the first of which would
launch in 2004. The new satellites would be fully operational by 2006.
Each satellite would be fitted with more powerful radio transmitters to
boost the GPS signal to eight times that currently used. This would
provide greater accuracy by reducing atmospheric interference. It would
also make it more difficult for an adversary to jam the signal to
disorientate troops on the ground or throw smart weapons off course.
"Effective jammers would have to increase in size and power, and they
would have to employ a more complicated jamming scenario," says Department
of Defense spokesman Raymond Swider.
Poke in the eye
But, according to one expert, the signal boost may reflect a US
determination not to be outdone by Galileo, Europe's recently approved
civilian satellite navigation system.
"It would be a poke in the eye for Galileo, which is supposed to have
stronger signal strength," says David Broughton, director of the Royal
Institute of Navigation in the UK.
Broughton adds that conflict between GPS and Galileo may not result in the
best service. He will argue at a forthcoming Global Navigation Satellite
Systems conference in Copenhagen that the two systems could be made
compatible.
GPS is freely available to anyone with a receiver but the US military can,
if desired, degrade the publicly-available signal. The $2.8 billion
Galileo project would go live in 2008, promising a permanent signal and
greater accuracy than GPS.
Will Knight
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