NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Iwancio
Date: 2021 May 21, 07:23 -0700
It's not a question of the absolute probability of a situation happening for which celnav is the best solution so much as the probability relative to the costs of being prepared for it (I'm sure the sailors here could go on about this).
Here, it seems the costs of being prepared to resort to celnav would be:
- weight of the equipment
- volume of the equipment
- new hole in the pressure hull
- training
If the USAF still thinks those costs are worthwhile on other aircraft (such as tankers and other aircraft expected to support Air Force One), then odds are those expenditures were made on Air Force Once as well.
Whether or not the USAF is correct in its value judgments here is one of those "armchair general" debate topics perhaps best saved for letters to your legislators. And personally I think any navigation-related screeds to Captol Hill should focus more on "Where's our eLORAN!?" for the time being.
