5 ms·

It was a very calculated decision - it made the others rely on US tech dominance, with the moment someone gets too uppity the P(Y) and M code encryption, and Se

It was a very calculated decision - it made the others rely on US tech dominance, with the moment someone gets too uppity the P(Y) and M code encryption, and Selective Availability noisy mess on normal code gets turned on and only USA plus some advanced multiband tracking receivers get accurate location... For good 30 years the strategy generally worked so much that satnav got synonymous with GPS. Big players launched their own constellations anyway. GLONASS, Beidou and fledgling but accurate Galileo. And there are still more systems. So if GPS wasn't free manufacturers would use something else.

sbierwagen 3y ago
I'd say the calculated decision was making it available to civilians in the first place: >After Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a Boeing 747 carrying 269 people, was shot down by a Soviet interceptor aircraft after straying in prohibited airspace because of navigational errors,[42] in the vicinity of Sakhalin and Moneron Islands, President Ronald Reagan issued a directive making GPS freely available for civilian use, once it was sufficiently developed, as a common good. That's the neutral phrasing on Wikipedia. The actual announcement: https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/statement-deputy-press-secretary-speakes-soviet-attack-korean-civilian-airliner-1 https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/statement-depu... >In their recent statements on the Korean Air Lines tragedy, senior Soviet officials have shocked the world by their assertion of the right to shoot down innocent civilian airliners which accidentally intrude into Soviet airspace. Despite the murder of 269 innocent victims, the Soviet Union is not prepared to recognize its obligations under international law to refrain from the use of force against civilian airliners. World opinion is united in its determination that this awful tragedy must not be repeated. As a contribution to the achievement of this objective, the President has determined that the United States is prepared to make available to civilian aircraft the facilities of its Global Positioning System when it becomes operational in 1988. This system will provide civilian airliners three-dimensional positional information.
ianburrell 3y ago
The P(Y) and M encryption are always turned on, those are the military signals. SA can’t be turned back on, most of the satellites don’t support it. Also, it would be disaster to lose GPS accuracy worldwide since so many users depend on it. It would also be pointless because there are other constellations like Galileo and GLOSNAS. Plus, multiband receivers are getting more common to support the new L5 signal. GPS jamming and spoofing are more useful because they can be targeted to area. As is happening in Ukraine.

sbierwagen 3y ago

I'd say the calculated decision was making it available to civilians in the first place: >After Korean Air Lines Flight 007, a Boeing 747 carrying 269 people, was shot down by a Soviet interceptor aircraft after straying in prohibited airspace because of navigational errors,[42] in the vicinity of Sakhalin and Moneron Islands, President Ronald Reagan issued a directive making GPS freely available for civilian use, once it was sufficiently developed, as a common good. That's the neutral phrasing on Wikipedia. The actual announcement: https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/statement-deputy-press-secretary-speakes-soviet-attack-korean-civilian-airliner-1 https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/statement-depu... >In their recent statements on the Korean Air Lines tragedy, senior Soviet officials have shocked the world by their assertion of the right to shoot down innocent civilian airliners which accidentally intrude into Soviet airspace. Despite the murder of 269 innocent victims, the Soviet Union is not prepared to recognize its obligations under international law to refrain from the use of force against civilian airliners. World opinion is united in its determination that this awful tragedy must not be repeated. As a contribution to the achievement of this objective, the President has determined that the United States is prepared to make available to civilian aircraft the facilities of its Global Positioning System when it becomes operational in 1988. This system will provide civilian airliners three-dimensional positional information.

ianburrell 3y ago

The P(Y) and M encryption are always turned on, those are the military signals. SA can’t be turned back on, most of the satellites don’t support it. Also, it would be disaster to lose GPS accuracy worldwide since so many users depend on it. It would also be pointless because there are other constellations like Galileo and GLOSNAS. Plus, multiband receivers are getting more common to support the new L5 signal. GPS jamming and spoofing are more useful because they can be targeted to area. As is happening in Ukraine.