Pentagon considering phasing out GPS

[johntaylor]

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter talks of replacing GPS with new military technologies in future years, due to cost and vulnerability to attack.

Ash Carter’s Idea of Disruptive Innovation: Unplug the Military From GPS

Is the Pentagon Getting Ready to Dump GPS?

[klrobert]

While GPS is really nice, I am still "old-school". I like to see a map and know where I am by looking at it . Map reading is a valuable skill that is being lost. A couple of years back, I was taking my tennage daughter somewhere and I pulled up the location on Google maps. I had location tracking turned off. I handed the phone to my daughter and asked her to navigate for me while I drove. She couldn't do it because the map didn't show our location. I quickly realized I need to teach her some map reading and navigation skills. Needless to say, she can now read a map and find her location on it and get where she needs to be.

[Lon]

In ur case GPS stands for good parenting skills. But I doubt the military will drop GPS. Then they will be as lost as the rest of us :-)

[ColoradoRick]

They've actually been planning to replace it with a more modern type for many years. (Not sure if I can go into details.) The current GPS signal (Eb/No) we get from the satellites are, actually, very low which means they are very easy to jam which renders GPS-guidance weapon systems useless.

But the current GPS array isn't going anywhere and they've actually added and replaced bad birds to help it out.

GPS.gov: GPS Accuracy

[cpaulsen]

If they do away with it.......some people are going to be sooooo lost. They have to have GPS to go to the store!!

[dogwood36322]

During th Clinton years the military had encryted signals for their use. They were turned off during his administration.

[Flybob]

Current GPS system is totally under control of government. They can shut down instantly if needed or introduce significant error as well. So no real long term threat to security. Too many private and non-military uses today to just replace it.

[Witch Doctor]

In the boating industry they had Loran that was before GPS, only the military had that. Then they lunched more satellites, a lot from private company's. Military GPS is spot on, which uses a different system. I never thought they would get rid of Loran but they did and now it's a door stop. I forgot how far GPS can be off that the public use but not the military guidance systems.

[DDC]

Does that mean I will not get to argue with that woman who keeps recalculating......

[Flybob]

The new system is reported to use a small child's voice that continually says "Are we there yet?"

[Malabarbob]

Im ready to dump my GPS. My iPhone does it all. I did really like the RV GPS when we had the big diesel pusher.

[Witch Doctor]

Originally Posted by Malabarbob

Im ready to dump my GPS. My iPhone does it all. I did really like the RV GPS when we had the big diesel pusher.

That could be true but your iphone uses GPS, so just think of ramification if that happened....

[danno2u]

Originally Posted by DDC

Does that mean I will not get to argue with that woman who keeps recalculating......

I recently bought 2 new Garmin GPS units. Neither of them says the annoying "recalculating" anymore! It's a relief to have the GPS just silently change routes to accommodate me!