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Defense Secretary “hates GPS”

Defense Secretary “hates GPS”

 

Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter’s recent statement “I hate GPS” naturally creates much concern within the navigation community. The July-August issue of Inside GNSS contains his presentation with the reaction from editor Glen Gibbons, plus my own response which delineates
* where the Secretary is badly mistaken, and
* where his concerns are legitimate.
There is a connection between the latter and our industry’s decades-long determined resistance to common-sense improvements in both performance and economy. Steps offering dramatic benefits are further described in material long available from this site. Rather than repeat those descriptions here, I now focus instead on another kind of avoidance: an urgent need to swerve away from
another administrative blunder .


Recent history illustrates how the preceding expression is no exaggeration. Loss of LORAN wasn’t permanent, for reasons that were primarily capricious. Planned destruction of vital backup to a vulnerable pillar for communication and navigation wasn’t completed because the government never got around to finishing it. Hundreds of experienced professionals offered testimony in 2009 (including my “two cents’ worth” revisited) — which failed at the time. Administrative action shut down LORAN for years, with intent to destroy it.


Poor judgment, however, is not the sole cause of unwise administrative action. Often it is prompted by poor performance; the GAO-08-467SP report provides a perfect explanation of that. Dismal as it is, it must be believed that even gross departures from responsible stewardship can be corrected. Destroying a critical resource is obviously not the answer.

 

By James Farrell 09 May, 2023
A look back in time by James L Farrell, PHD - 2023
11 Apr, 2020
Apologies for little posting lately. Much activity included some with deadlines; this will focus primarily on the few years leading up to Covid.
11 Apr, 2020
GNSS Aided Navigation & Tracking
By James Farrell 30 Aug, 2018
Apologies for little posting lately. Much activity included some with deadlines; this will be limited to the past twelve months. In 2017 my involvement in the annual GNSS+ Conference again included teaching the satnav/inertial integration tutorial sessions with OhioU Prof. Frank vanGraas. Part I and Part II are likewise being offered for Sept 2018. Also...Read More
28 Jun, 2018
Once again I am privileged to work with Ohio University Prof. Frank vanGraas, in presenting tutorial sessions at the Institute of Navigation’s GNSS-19 conference. In 2019, as in several consecutive previous years, two sessions will cover integrated navigation with Kalman filtering.  Descriptions of the part 1 session and part 2 session are now available online. By way of...Read More
30 Apr, 2018
The Institute of Navigation’s GNSS+ 2018 Conference provides me the privilege of collaborating with two of the industry’s pillars of expertise. Ohio University Professor Frank van Graas and I are offering fundamental and advanced tutorials.  Then on the last day of the conference I’m coauthored with William Woodward, Chairman of SAE Int’l Aerospace Avionics Systems Division and hardware lead...Read More
24 Apr, 2018
A new SAE standard for GPS receivers is a natural complement to a newly receptive posture toward innovation unmistakably expressed at high levels in FAA and Mitre (ICNS 2018).  Techniques introduced over decades by this author (many on this site) can finally become operational. 1980s euphoria over GPS success was understandable but decision-makers, lulled into complacency, defined requirements in adherence...Read More
22 Mar, 2018
At April’s ICNS meeting (Integrated Communications Navigation and Surveillance) as coauthor with Bill Woodward (Chairman, SAE International Aerospace Avionics Systems Division), I’ll present “NEW INTERFACE REQUIREMENTS: IMPLICATIONS for FUTURE“.  By “future” we indicate the initiation of a task to conclude with a SAE standard that will necessitate appearance of separate satellite measurements to be included...Read More
16 Jul, 2016
A recent video describes a pair of long-awaited developments that promise dramatic benefits in achievable navigation and tracking performance.  Marked improvements will occur, not only in accuracy and availability; over four decades this topic has arisen in connection with myriad operations, many documented in material cited from other blogs here. 
12 Feb, 2016
For reasons, consider a line from a song in Gilbert-&-Sullivan’s Gondoliers: “When everybody is somebody, then nobody is anybody” — (too many cooks) For consequences, consider this question: Should an intolerable reality remain indefinitely intolerable? While much of the advocacy expressed in my publications and website have focused on tracking and navigation, this tract concentrates...Read More
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