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The Air Force May Ditch GPS for Earth's Magnetic Field... We're long overdue for a new way to navigate.
www.popularmechanics.com ^ | By Kyle Mizokami Aug 4, 2020

Posted on 08/07/2020 7:46:40 AM PDT by Red Badger

The Air Force, wary of losing its GPS satellites during a major war, is exploring alternatives.

One alternative is using a magnetic field map of Earth.

Maps of Earth’s magnetic field are very accurate, but we don't know how data is gained about possible enemy territory.

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The U.S. Air Force, concerned that adversaries might target its fleet of GPS satellites in wartime, is looking into Earth’s magnetic field as an alternative, according to Defense One.Accurate and extremely difficult to jam, the magnetic field could be used as a means of navigation for ground troops, ships at sea, and aircraft. The magnetic field could also guide missiles to their targets with an accuracy of just over 30 feet.

The worldwide Global Positioning System (GPS), created in the late 1980s, has evolved to become an essential part of life for nearly every person on the planet. The 24 satellites that make up the GPS constellation freely provide positioning, timing, and navigational information worldwide–especially for the U.S. military. GPS allows units in the air, on land, and at sea to know their position at all times; quickly agree on a common, synchronized time; and navigate across unfamiliar terrain with relative ease.

The GPS constellation visualized. QAI Publishing

he Pentagon’s reliance on GPS has made its disruption or destruction the number one priority by adversaries in wartime. Anti-satellite weapons, GPS jammers, and even GPS spoofers are designed to destroy, deny, or degrade the network, forcing U.S. and allied forces to rely on older, less accurate ways of determining their finding their way around.

Russia, China, and North Korea have all developed and deployed GPS countermeasures, some of which have interfered with civilian GPS usage. In 2019, pilots discovered Russian GPS jamming (to protect Moscow’s forces in Syria) interfering with civilian air traffic in the Eastern Mediterranean, from Cyprus to Israel.

The U.S. military has rolled out a number of alternatives to GPS, including navigating ships by sextant. One idea that seemingly holds a lot of promise: magnetic anomaly navigation techniques, or MAGNAV.

The magnetic field protecting Earth from solar winds is all encompassing, but varies by location. These variances, recorded by a magnetometer, can be correlated to a map of the planet. The result is a magnetic map of Earth that doesn’t require satellites or even a physical map.

The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and other weapons use GPS to achieve unparalleled accuracy. These weapons are capable of traveling for miles and landing within 10 feet of their targets.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Government; Technical
KEYWORDS: airforce; gps; magneticfield; usaf
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To: Red Badger

This is all fine and dandy. But, The magnetic poles are always shifting. They constantly renumber airport runways because of it.


41 posted on 08/07/2020 8:52:17 AM PDT by eastexsteve
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To: Mr. Jeeves

How do you know they don’t already?...................


42 posted on 08/07/2020 8:56:13 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'...........................)
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To: ASA Vet

HAARP,
Fluoride,
EMP.
COVID-19.

Rotate....................


43 posted on 08/07/2020 8:56:49 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'...........................)
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To: Red Badger


"I hear that plane a-coming
she's rolling round the bend..."

44 posted on 08/07/2020 8:58:11 AM PDT by Songcraft
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To: Reily

Essentially how submarines do it, with some other nuances. GPS is not an option, they use inertial navigation and other natural markers like magnetic fields to help correct for errors in the inertial navigation. They aren’t using the magnetic fields to actually navigate, just to get a fix and make a correction to the errors that accumulate over time in an inertial system.


45 posted on 08/07/2020 8:58:48 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: School of Rational Thought

No the magnetic pole is moving. The north and south poles have been pretty constant.


46 posted on 08/07/2020 9:01:30 AM PDT by xp38
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To: Red Badger

That’s a popular map in Australia.


47 posted on 08/07/2020 9:03:18 AM PDT by xp38
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To: pepsi_junkie

yep !


48 posted on 08/07/2020 9:03:28 AM PDT by Reily
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To: Songcraft

49 posted on 08/07/2020 9:04:32 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'...........................)
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To: Songcraft

The portable version.....................

50 posted on 08/07/2020 9:06:54 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'...........................)
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To: Songcraft
The Japanese version..............
51 posted on 08/07/2020 9:07:55 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'...........................)
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To: Songcraft

The German Version....................

52 posted on 08/07/2020 9:08:58 AM PDT by Red Badger (To a liberal, 9-11 was 'illegal fireworks activity'...........................)
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To: Red Badger
Stick to the basics, I always say.


53 posted on 08/07/2020 9:13:36 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Red Badger

LoL! Navigators have been finding their way by compass and sextant for hundreds of years. All ya need is a compass, a sextant, and an almanac and you can go pretty much anywhere in the world. It just takes longer to find out where you are at the moment you decide to go someplace. We had magnetic compasses and inertial nav systems on the old P-3s and a periscopic sextant mount in the top of the Nav station. Used it hundreds of times and we always found our current position and we always found our way home. Magnetic navigation can be tampered with, but nobody ever figured out a way to spoof celestial navigation.


54 posted on 08/07/2020 9:14:36 AM PDT by Afterguard (Deplorable me!)
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To: Red Badger

All the pics you posted are great!        :-)

55 posted on 08/07/2020 9:15:58 AM PDT by Songcraft
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To: minnesota_bound
The UFO was nearby

The only UFO I've seen was in Thailand.

I did however, have a B-58 pass over just above the trees in that same swamp. The sonic boom scared the crap out of me.

56 posted on 08/07/2020 9:18:02 AM PDT by ASA Vet (Make American Intelligence Great Again. Bring back ASA.)
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To: fishtank

The device pictured here reminds me of the story about The Tate’s Compass Co. The story goes that a Tate’s compass pointed in any old direction; not strictly North. And THAT is what triggered the old adage: “He who has a Tate’s is lost!” (Snicker-snort)!


57 posted on 08/07/2020 9:20:38 AM PDT by Tucker39 ("It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." George Washington)
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To: Tucker39

GROAN !!!


58 posted on 08/07/2020 9:28:26 AM PDT by ASA Vet (Make American Intelligence Great Again. Bring back ASA.)
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To: EEGator; Buckeye McFrog; Red Badger; dfwgator; null and void; Daffynition
Excellent topic.

The Air Force May Ditch GPS for Earth's Magnetic Field... We're long overdue for a new way to navigate.

By the stars! What's old is new again. Thank the Navi. A global force for good.

God's got the ultimate punchline just waiting for the precise moment. Conspiracy theorists take heart! It's all in good fun.

"Weaponized weather"...

It has to do with the ionosphere.

"You won't find them easy to follow. They're using some kind of code."

ionosphere, which has a Hebrew page --

יונוספירה

Heh, you just never know where Jonah (Yona) might show up again.

Or what a private enterprise operation is able to accomplish.

I hope that posts of mine like this are remembered for their apparent weirdness magnitude (-4.14), because that's how I'll be vindicated.

Where are those Ariel photographs? :)

All we have to do is get there tomorrow at dawn and we've got ourselves a bridge.

59 posted on 08/07/2020 9:53:24 AM PDT by Ezekiel (The pun is mightier than the s-word. Goy to the World!)
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To: fso301

Well, those are cheap.


60 posted on 08/07/2020 9:56:29 AM PDT by EEGator
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