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U.S. May Reduce Non-Military GPS Accuracy

Posted by timothy on from the geocaching-will-be-more-challenging dept.

ward99 writes "The U.S. government may be degrading GPS satellite signals, to cripple Iraqi forces' ability to use those systems during the war. This could potentially reduce accuracy from ~3 meters to over ~100 meters. Users depending on GPS systems may want to do sanity checks on any data returned by those systems during the war. The U.S. will do this by increasing the inaccuracies on the civilian C/A code, turning back on S/A (Selective Availability), by having the satellites deliberately and randomly return inaccurate information on where they are. S/A degrades GPS accuracy to only 100 meters 95 percent of the time and 300 meters the other 5 percent of the time. This will not effect the military P code."

8 of 654 comments (clear)

  1. Nope! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Tax money makes terror legal. ppl who have no money are terrorists.

  2. Gelileo by matt4077 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Can't wait for the european system to be up and working. Nothing better than a little competition. And hopefully the us and europe will never be at war at the same time.

    --
    Fleur de Sel
  3. Re:it *is* our stuff by oliverthered · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Well, I'm not paying their cheque next month.
    Oh, wait, they have the electric chair. fuck the employees right to kill me, where's slavery when you need it.

    --
    thank God the internet isn't a human right.
  4. Re:This was *exactly* why we here in Europe... by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I don't know about that EU army....sounds like the faciests found out how to work inside the system.

    --



    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
  5. Indeed by goldcd · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    A friend of mine is heavily involved in the EU satellite program (building them). Not only are we going to be getting non-US global positioning, we're also getting some other very clever satellites loaded with all sorts of clever gizmos which we're not allowed to talk about without our families being abducted in the middle of the night. Will help us spot the little errors that sometimes arise from US satellite intelligence e.g. "Oh look, we can see several hundred thousand Iraqi troops on your [Saudi Arabia] border - can we base our troops there to protect your oil fields population?

  6. Re:This was *exactly* why we here in Europe... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    You are aware, of course, that GPS is first and foremost a targeting system for cruise missiles? Developed for one reason and one reason only, to turn the Soviet military into liquid green glass? The civilian applications are an afterthought.

    This, as in so many things provided by America, is taken for granted by Europeans.
    "Oh, dear...they can't reintroduce Selective Availibility...let's pass a UN resolution against it! Oh, wait, I forgot, we Europeans decided it's OK to flagrantly violate UN resolutions you don't agree with."

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  7. Re:This was *exactly* why we here in Europe... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    It's as if the entire world is against the U.S. It's not, France alone thwarted the U.S. from getting U.N. coverage. And now the French want to have their cake and eat it too, by saying they'll enter the war if Iraq uses WMD? I THOUGHT SADDAM DIDN'T HAVE WMD, FRANCE!

    It's really, really odd how so much breath is expended on how the U.S. is ignoring the U.N. and NOT ONE WORD ABOUT IRAQ'S VIOLATIONS.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  8. insightful? by Transient0 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the parent paraphrase as: "If it's useful, and it's not ours, we have the right to blow it up."?

    Since when does that sort of dangerous self-righteous neo-patriotic paranoia qualify as insightful?

    This may be marked as flamebait, but it's worth the chance, I have Karma to burn anyway.

    --
    lysergically yours