The Air Force has
flacked the U.S. Government Accountability Office over a report
claiming that the U.S. military's global positioning system is
experiencing serious degradation.
The GPS program —
which provides critical position, navigation, and timing data to
users worldwide —
has become essential to U.S. national security as well as to finding
the nearest Dunkin' Donuts. An ever-expanding array of public service
and commercial applications are being developed to tap into GPS data,
including apps for mobile phones.
The Air Force is
responsible for GPS acquisition, but has struggled in recent years to
successfully build GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals.
At the moment, the GPS
satellite program has overrun its original cost by about $870
million, and the launch of its first satellite has been delayed for
almost three years according to the report. As a result, there is an
increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail,
the overall GPS constellation will fall far below the number of
satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S.
government requires. If that happens, GPS users will have to say
goodbye to that comforting, monotone voice giving them directions,
and possibly have to blow the dust off the old map book.
According to a
statement by Air Force Col. Dave Buckman during a May 25 online press
conference, the real issue regarding the GPS is not whether it will
stop working, but rather if the program will exceed the usual Air
Force performance standard.
In the May 7 GAO report
Global Positioning System: Significant Challenges in Sustaining
and Upgrading Widely Used Capabilities, it says that there is
only an 80 percent likelihood that the Air Force would be able to
maintain its full 24-satellite constellation over a period between
2010 and 2014, which could result in lower GPS performance.
While there is some
risk of military GPS degradation, “GPS isn’t falling out of the
sky,” Buckman said. He added that the Air Force is currently going
over plans to avoid risking a gap in satellite numbers by planning
launches for August 2009 and early 2010 to add to the 30-plus
satellites that are in orbit now.
To read the GAO report click here
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