IP: Pentagon: Proposed EU satellites could interfere with GPS

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.computerworld.com/itresources/rcstory/0,4167,STO66935_KEY68,00.html


By BOB BREWIN

(December 24, 2001) Top Pentagon officials have expressed strong concerns 
that a planned $2.2 billion European satellite navigation system could 
interfere with signals from the satellite-based U.S. Global Positioning 
System (GPS) used to conduct military operations, such as the extensive use 
of GPS-guided smart bombs in Afghanistan.

The frequencies the EU has proposed for Galileo are interleaved with the 
same frequencies the U.S. Defense Department has proposed for a new 
generation of GPS satellites and could cause interference with GPS, 
according to Air Force Lt. Col. Ken McClellan, a Pentagon spokesman. "The 
two proposed systems are on the same frequencies," McClellan said, adding 
that the result could be inadvertent "jamming" of signals from one 
satellite navigation system by another.
GPS satellites currently transmit position information in the 1,500-MHz 
frequency band with an accuracy of 100 meters to anyone in the world who 
has a simple receiver costing as little as $100. The satellites also 
transmit in the 1,200-MHz band an encrypted military signal with an 
accuracy as good as six meters. The new GPS satellites, planned as a part 
of a $400 million, six-year GPS upgrade in 1999, will add two civilian 
signals, one in the 1,200-MHz band and another just under that, at 1,176.45 
MHz.

The Pentagon conveyed its concerns about potential Galileo interference to 
GPS in a letter from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to European 
defense ministers on Dec. 4. The letter from Wolfowitz expressly raised 
concerns that Galileo could cause interference with military operations, 
said a Pentagon official who declined to be identified. He added that since 
NATO enjoys the benefits of GPS and conducts joint operations with the 
U.S., the Pentagon wanted to participate in discussions with the EU on 
development of Galileo.

According to a report in the London-based Financial Times Saturday, the EU 
viewed the Wolfowitz letter as U.S. interference with its plan to develop a 
satellite navigation system free from Pentagon control. The European 
Commission has until March to obtain half the funding for Galileo, with the 
other half already budgeted by the European Space Agency.

French President Jacques Chirac urged development of Galileo to ensure that 
Europe doesn't become a "vassal" of the U.S., according to the Financial 
Times.
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