NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Quartz article: reinstating celestial...
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2015 Oct 23, 19:08 +0000
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2015 Oct 23, 19:08 +0000
Francis (and David Pike in another post):
As an electronics engineer, I can see no reasonable scenario where the sophisticated electronics and backup electronics on a modern Navy ship (almost regardless of whose flag it's flying) could suddenly become so totally inoperative that the crew would have to rely on celestial unless there were a massive act of war (eg, taking out all GPS satellites) -- at which point the ability of a single ship to find its position at sea will be a *very* low priority for the nation's navy.
David: as to the issue of "air-gapping," I suspect that much of a ship's electronics is NOT connected to the Internet.
From: Francis Upchurch <NoReply_Upchurch@fer3.com>
To: luabel@ymail.com
Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2015 2:27 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Quartz article: reinstating celestial...
Lu,If we are talking nuclear armagedon, do we really care where we are as apposed to who we are?I suspect all modern warships, aircraft and everything else military is dead without sophisitated electronics, am I right?We are basically back to spears and arrows. Maybe we should refloat HMS Vivtory, currently dry docked in Portsmouth?I hate to think our wonderful hobby is all about survivalist post nuclear holocaust?I am sceptical that we need to justify a return/preservation of cel nav purely on the basis of military worst case. I think our art is good for the univeral soul and useful anyway.Best as alwaysFrancis
