Comments on: Do we need a European Global Navigation Satellite System?

By: Global Positioning System: Car GPS, GPS Reviews » Do we need a European Global Navigation Satellite System?

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 07:31:54 +0000

[...] unknown had some great ideas on this topic.You can read a snippet of the post here.… and a few security breeches thrown in for good measure; but look carefully, and in amongst the hullabaloo you’ll find a geospatial debate on the floor of the commons… Do we need a European Global Navigation Satellite System? … [...]

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 08:11:02 +0000

Morten \ Christian,

Thanks for the comments.

Valid point Morten; I had given some consideration to the influence the US military have over NAVSTAR, but was reluctant to discuss it for a couple of reasons…

1/ Europe is expecting a contribution from the private sector for Galileo, and it’s the lack of this cash that seems to be causing the problems; but, if the primary purpose of Galileo is national security and independence of the US military, it seems nonsense to rely on private corporations for the cash, and the framework for the project requires a complete overhaul.

2/ If Galileo is to be built, with a larger emphasis on the military component, where is the security for Britain in a navigation system that is shared between the 25 member states of the EU, with a short history of peace and cooperation?

I’m not adverse to the idea of Galileo, but I do think that expecting private companies to stump up for it upfront is a little optimistic.

Rob

By: Christian

Christian — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:27:09 +0000

is there any guarantee that, in the long term, coke is available and for free?

besides, I think that a 100% public funded and controlled Galileo will become sooner or later a political ball in the member states game. a good balanced PPP is essential for a successful Galileo…

By: Morten

Morten — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 06:10:11 +0000

You are still missing one important fact (and most seem to do when they argue whether we need Galileo or not).
NAVSTAR is owned and controlled by the US Military, and they still hold the right to turn it off, re-enable SA or whatever else they feel like.
Some of these things are unlikely to happen (although we did see SA enabled locally over Iraq), this poses one big problem: We can’t rely 100% on it. Today we could fly planes navigated by GPS, but for these reasons no one is willing to rely on it, although it could increate the safety significantly.
Galileo on the other hand is controlled by private companies (well at least it used to, I’m not sure what the current state is now) and is designed from ground up not to be disabled or crippled in any way. Furthermore they will provide a lot better coverage on the higher latitude than GPS does.
Another thing worth remembering… NAVSTAR is now upgrading their satelittes and increasing the power and accuracy. I wonder whether this would have happened if we didn’t have the Galileo project. Competition is rarely a bad thing for the consumer.