Can There Be Two Navigation Stars?

Sept. 21, 2005

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

What are the chances of “Building a Multinational Global Navigation Satellite System”? It may not have the answer, but RAND analysts, in a new paper, note some possible benefits, such as “increased performance in accuracy.” For decades, the US Air Force’s Global Position System has been the preeminent navigation and timing system, used by military and civilian customers around the world. Free to customers. In advancing its own GPS-type system—Galileo—Europe is about to upset the apple cart. RAND says that the coexistence of the two poses “technical, geopolitical, regulatory, national security, and economic issues.”

Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org

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