Posted on 06/01/2010 10:28:07 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
A problem that rendered as many as 10,000 U.S. military GPS receivers useless for days is a warning to safeguard a system that enemies would love to disrupt, a defense expert says.
The Air Force has not said how many weapons, planes or other systems were affected or whether any were in use in Iraq or Afghanistan. But the problem, blamed on incompatible software, highlights the military's reliance on the Global Positioning System and the need to protect technology that has become essential for protecting troops, tracking vehicles and targeting weapons.
"Everything that moves uses it," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, which tracks military and homeland security news. "It is so central to the American style of war that you just couldn't leave home without it."
The problem occurred when new software was installed in ground control systems for GPS satellites on Jan. 11, the Air Force said.
Officials said between 8,000 at 10,000 receivers could have been affected, out of more than 800,000 in use across the military.
In a series of e-mails to The Associated Press, the Air Force initially blamed a contractor for defective software in the affected receivers but later said it was a compatibility issue rather than a defect. The Air Force didn't immediately respond to a request for clarification.
The Air Force said it hadn't tested the affected receivers before installing the new software in the ground control system.
One program still in development was interrupted but no weapon systems already in use were grounded as a result of the problem, the Air Force said. The Air Force said some applications with the balky receivers suffered no problems from the temporary GPS loss.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Never throw those old maps away. Being an old Aeroscout, I often wondered about this.
Anyone who depends solely on a GPS unit deserves to get lost.
Ya, I still have my USGS and military maps and carry a MilSpec (MIL-PRF-10436N) compass. Yes, it is in degrees and mils.
I agree with you.
save
Bump.
“that enemies would love to disrupt”
“enemies”? what “enemies”? be specific...
OUR enemies”?
enemies of global peace & understanding?
islam?
the russians?
the chicomms?
as far as big media have told us, we have no enemies..
“We could properly levy a tax on the rest of the world for its availability and use”
Global tax would be a bad thing. But encoding it & charging would not.
But while we’re on the siubject, why is all US government Internet data, terabytes apon terabytes of it, available to any korean/vietnamese/chinese/sudanese that wants it?
Why is all US federal information produced declared to be “in the public domain”? Surely that should be for US citizens only.
I like that quote.
Notice the real money quote here: “American style of war.” Meaning precision, speed. If GPS disappeared tomorrow, we could still fight like we used to by carpet-bombing the hell out of an area. Ground forces could still get from Point A to B (we still teach basic land nav with compasses and maps, don’t worry) and kill whoever we want when we get there. GPS just allows us to do it faster with less loss of innocent life. That’s all.
You could have had me fooled. I haven't seen a 1:50,000 map over here. There are plenty of ONC maps, and a whole slew of specialty maps, but those used for navigation are in short supply.
At times, I think these boys would be lost without all their toys.
We have made it easy for the Bad Guys to swim and hide in the Ocean of the People, with our PC delusions of precision munitions, and RoEs. We are paying for it, with what is now the longest war in American military history.
Something to consider for the future: If the US military were one tenth as sadistic as the Leftists say we are, 'Stan would be a radioactive ashtray.
If American Socialists ever achieve power over an obedient, quasi-military organization with modern US technology, Orwell's vision of a boot on the neck of humanity, forever, will come true.
We have made it easy for the Bad Guys to swim and hide in the Ocean of the People, with our PC delusions of precision munitions, and RoEs. We are paying for it, with what is now the longest war in American military history.
Something to consider for the future: If the US military were one tenth as sadistic as the Leftists say we are, 'Stan would be a radioactive ashtray.
If American Socialists ever achieve power over an obedient, quasi-military organization with modern US technology, Orwell's vision of a boot on the neck of humanity, forever, will come true.
You don’t have maps? When we (a Stryker BDE) deployed to Iraq, we took a ton of navigation maps with us. We never used them, they never came out of the connex, but we had ‘em.
There’s preventing casualties and there’s hamstringing yourselves to the point of ineffect. We’ve passed into the latter, especially in Afghanistan.
And, yes, there are innocent people out there. Sometimes they get killed and it absolutely sucks, but we do our best to prevent it.
I’m a techie, and the first thing you do with new software is TEST IT IN THE LAB.
Morons.
I believe this is referred to as an Achilles heel.
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