Posted on 04/23/2005 1:26:31 PM PDT by John Jorsett
China is now working with the European multi-national organization that is building Galileo, a GPS competitor that is putting 30 satellites into orbit. Galileo will offer services that GPS does not and, most importantly, will not be under the control of the U.S. Department of Defense. While Galileo can be jammed, and the United States has said it will just that in wartime, the United States can do more than just jam GPS, they can fiddle with it in subtle ways. Or so the Chinese think. While using Galileo instead of GPS will cost the Chinese more (for additional equipment and software) in the long run, there are many benefits. Chinese participation in the project just about guarantees that Galileo will get into service, and provide the Chinese with valuable military technology. This, despite the European embargo on selling weapons to China (because of the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.) Galileo is something of a vanity project for European nations. Its $5 billion cost provides negligible benefit to Europe, but does enable European nations to avoid using the American GPS navigation system.
France's handiwork, no doubt. They'd try to repeal the law of gravity if it had been discovered by an American.
This shouldn't be a shock. The Chi-coms see us as strategic competitors. No way they would want to use our navigation systems.
It's becoming increasingly clear that China is planning for the contingency of military confrontation with us in the coming years, and that they see the Europeans no threat to their plans for regional domination.
So, if we, got forbid, ever had a military conflict with China, what does anyone think the odds are that Europe would help us out?
Er, God. That was weird :-)
I have driven many times in Europe with GPS. Incredibly the signals stopped as soon as I crossed the French border.
The Frogs apparently hate anything American. :)
if we, got forbid, ever had a military conflict with China, what does anyone think the odds are that Europe would help us out?
Well, if we did, the Euros would soon find themselves
without a positioning system.
Remember the movie "Red Dawn". There was a scene when the fighter pilot guy told the Wolverines about how the Russians with their Central American allies had launced a surprise attack on the US and cut the country in half. When asked what Europe was doing to help us out he replied "I guess twice in one century was enough for them...they're sitting this one out". That's exactly what will happen in the event of a conflict with China. Europe will do absolutely NOTHING to help us.
"This shouldn't be a shock. The Chi-coms see us as strategic competitors."
No, we (or at least some of us) see them as strategic competitors. They see us as THE enemy.
ping
Ping! Just thought this was interesting. :)
Yup. You get it.
If China had a GPS that was unique to it, we could wipe it out without a thought if it came to a war. If they're using Galileo and we wiped THAT out, we'll seriously tick off the Europeans, and presumably make things more difficult for any of those nation's militaries to help us out. That eventuality will at least make us hesitate to deny China access to positioning data.
Reminds me of a quote I heard attributed to Albert Einstein. He once quipped that if his theories were proven incorrect, the French would refer to him as "that German Scientist" and the Germans would refer to him as "that Jewish Scientist." But if his theories were upheld the Germans would refer to him as "a well-respected German Scientist," while the French would call him "a Citizen of the World."
If our GPS satellites are destroyed or jammed, our military is prepared to put up 'pseudolites' to take their place, at least for military operations. Due to how ingrained GPS has become for civilians, however, the entire world economy would take a massive hit. China would make itself extremely unpopular.
Low. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the E.U. already has secret plans drafted, with consultation with China, to divide up the United States. If a war came here, our soft general public who has never had to fight off an enemy on our own mainland soil for generations will sit by watching in shock. I can even picture prominent Dems scheming to get gubernatorial appointments from the ChiComs, and the N.Y. Times writing glowing editorials of "the ChiCom freedom fighters coming to bring us our glorious revolution." *cough*
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