The Global Positioning System (GPS)

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based infrastructure developed by the United States Department of Defense to provide an invaluable navigation service to the military; GPS has since been proven to be an incomparable asset to the civilian public as well. What GPS does is provide a precise, readily available signal for navigation that can be used to position anyone or anything, anywhere on the planet.1 GPS therefore represents, quite simply, bar none the best positioning tool humankind has ever devised.

Human beings have always been preoccupied with the attendant problems of navigation. Landmarks on the horizon, stars in the heavens, a compass, an intuitionùall of these have alternatively guided and confounded those that have relied upon them. As a consequence, human ventures ranging from ocean crossings to military marches to weekend road trips to afternoon hikes have been impacted by the elusiveness of reliable navigation techniques. The advent of GPS technology may forever obviate these traditional concerns for modern day navigators of all types.

More crucially, the nature of warfare has been fundamentally impacted and forever altered. For the purposes of this discussion, it is this aspect of the debate that will be explored. The implications GPS has for the US military are and have been many; that the benefits of GPS have been adopted to a wide range of commercial uses is o

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l funding for the next-generation GPS III architecture program for the next three years."9 Responsible for this decision is Under Secretary for the Air Force, Peter Teets. Through Teets, the Air Force decision is set to jeopardize the future of GPS for more than a decade. GPS World summarizes thus: "While funding the plan that goes with the President's FY04 budget restores some money in FY06 and FY07, the total planned cut for GPS III through 2007, from the budget anticipated only a year ago, comes to approximately $347 million."10 These budget cuts are broken out year-by-year in Table 1, below. Fiscal years 2008 and 2009 are unknowns at this time, and for all intensive purposes, it should be noted that budgets are tractable and perennially subject to change. However, it is worth noting that the US Air Force has reported that the total funding planned for the fiscal years 2005 through 2009 will total over $2 billion.11 Given the existing 2003 plan for 2005 through 2007, this would indicate that to achieve that figure GPS III would need to receive $1.6 billion in funding between 2008 and 2009. The probability that GPS will receive this flush of funding is extremely low. The cuts, it is safe to conclude, will continue
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 5600
Approximate Pages = 22 (250 words per page)

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