It is extraordinarily unlikely that private investment would have backed the development and deployment of GPS. The effort spanned decades, cost fantastic sums,

It is extraordinarily unlikely that private investment would have backed the development and deployment of GPS. The effort spanned decades, cost fantastic sums, and was justified only on the basis that it could prevent nuclear annihilation. Indeed, were it not for the ultra-secret classification, it's unlikely that anything this ambitions and uncertain would have gotten through a civilian agency that was subject to Congress. In other words, top secret military technology that takes taxpayer support for granted is not all bad. That's an inconvenient truth for some people.