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Military Tech: GPS and Networking

Posted by michael on from the lost-in-the-desert dept.

king of birds writes "The New York Times has an interesting article on the present military use of GPS. While some units have rather modern system that can graphically display locations of other troops, others rely on 10-year-old 5 channel receivers. Kind of odd when I can 12 channels on my civilian model (with admittedly lower spatial accuracy)." aaronvegh writes "From the Canadian Press, a story about how a US infantry division uses a system of transponders and servers to track friendly and enemy units, from the headquarters to inside individual tanks. Talk about total information awareness! No friendlies were harmed in the making of this story."

7 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. GPS doesn't stop you getting lost. by Boss,+Pointy+Haired · · Score: 4, Funny

    It just tells you exactly where you are lost.

  2. So... by ebatsky · · Score: 1, Funny

    Are those generals commanding troops though an X-Box?!

  3. Technological goodness! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I want to adapt this system to graphically display locations of all my girlfriends.

    1. Re:Technological goodness! by BrainInAJar · · Score: 3, Funny

      Solution:
      2 recievers, broadcasting their location to a central server.
      Put one in each hand.

  4. I have a question... by SirDaShadow · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...are the good guys in blue and the bad guys in red? ;)

    1. Re:I have a question... by tunabomber · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not unless everyone has their evil bit set correctly.

      --

      pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory71 ...
  5. Re:Risky by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Isn't it a little risky to put location transponders on all your military units? If the enemy cracks your transponder codes, they can easily target you. "

    Suddenly a fleet of vehicles simultaneously comes to a complete stop. "An update to your GPS software is available. Would you like to download it now?"

    --
    "Derp de derp."