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In an interesting to note the dependence on GPS, during the invasion of Iraq
a company commander apparently did not program or know how to use his
military GPS unit.  So his company wandered into a village filled with what
ever the civilian militia and government terrorists Saddam had created.
They ended up in a gun battle, several of his men and women got killed and
several more got taken prisoner.  Now I am not saying that as a military
commander you should whip out your sextant and take a sun sight to try to
figure out where he is, but thank God the U.S. Marines still teach basic
land navigation with a map and a compass.  I know, I have run their
orienteering course at Quantico and it is tough.  You don't become an
officer unless you pass it, along with shooting guns and calling in
artillery, and about 100 other things you need to know before taking
someone's son into a war zone.

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]
On Behalf Of Gordon Talge
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 10:10 AM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: Re: Turning Off the GPS

Well, I don't know. Who would have thought that "they" could bring
down the World Trade Center. Moreover, Russia and China could help turn
off the GPS as a kind of "sticking it to the man" act.

The Soviets had massive air superiority in Afghanistan in the '80s
and we, the US gave the Afghans "Stingers" as a way of a kind of
payback for Vietnam. The Afghans could have never come up with the
Stingers themselves. BTW, there are no doubt unused Stingers floating
around. Wonder where they are, and who has got them.

Welcome to the 21st Century where some guy in a cave 10,000 miles
away with an AK has a nation of almost 300 million people freaked
out.

The whole point was though, that for most people, saying that they
have Celestial Navigation as a backup to GPS, is really not valid,
because to be good at Celestial Nav you have to practice a lot.
Most people don't. I met a guy that sailed from Gib to Barbados
with only GPS. Didn't even know or carry any Cel Nav stuff. I asked
him what brand of sextant he had, and he told me he didn't even own one!
The time to learn it is not at sea when your GPS dies.

-- Gordon

PS: Kind of like my high school students trying to learn Geometry
while taking the Semester Final.

> With all respect, Gordon, it would take a lot more technology than the
> terrorists have to turn off GPS much less to make it give incorrect
> positions.   GPS uses satellites.  One would need satellite-killer
> missiles to "turn off" GPS.  Only two or three countries (USA, Russia,
> China?) have the technology (which, BTW, includes the technology and
> infrastructure to track and identify the target before saying to the
> missile "go get 'em").  To make GPS give the wrong position would
> require taking over the US's GPS control centers and I'm sure the US
> military has put a lot of thought and effort into preventing that.
>

   

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