[meteorite-list] OT help, GPS, DOD

[Sterling K. Webb]

Hi, Tom,

    Chris did a great job of answering your GPS question, but I want to add to
your statement that "Iraq was using them also."  You are probably referring to a
memory of news stories from the spring of 2003 about the Iraq (Saddam)
government buying lots of expensive Russian-made GPS jamming units in order to
disable the guidance systems of US ordinance, most specifically cruise missiles.

    One wishes that the Iraqis had spent even more money on these gizmos, since
these  Russian devices are basically a box of of electronic garbage, totally
useless unless you happen to need a big old-fashioned piece of sci-fi-looking
equipment to complete your home decor.
    GPS was developed for purely military reasons but its benefits outside of
those applications have been huge, all of them positive and constructive.
    Jamming, corrupting or distorting a GPS signal is not much of a missile
defense solution either, turning a guided missile into an unguided missile.
It's still going to hit something.
    Much more useful would be an electronic attempt to gain control over the
cruise missile's guidance program via a strong local signal and re-direct (or
re-program) the missile while in flight, in effect turning it into your missile.

    You may also recall an incident during the Kosovo war when foreign
journalists were killed when a hotel in Belgrade was hit by cruise missiles. The
US was severely criticized internationally for the incident and our
carelessness.  The US press created a flap about inaccurate DOD maps that did
not show the existence of the newly built hotel.  There were violent
demonstrations in the journalists' home country at the US Embassy.
    Not one but two cruise missiles programmed for other targets in Belgrade
each independently and inexplicably went "off-course" and separately, from
different directions, converged on the same upper floor corner room of the
hotel, killing five Chinese journalists, whose luggage consisted primarily of a
very considerable quantity of electronic equipment, brought along so they could
file their stories directly to China by using their own powerful radio
equipment, of course.
    I suspect what this incident demonstrates is that if you attempt control
communications with a cruise missile in flight, it will respond to the attention
by paying you a visit in person,  As it turns out, this is not a pleasant
experience.
    There are few technological experiences more memorable than watching a
cruise missile fly down a Bagdad boulevard, 80 feet above the roadway at 300+
mph, dead straight and running the centerline, until three blocks down it
suddenly hangs a right hand turn down a cross street with equal precision, on
its way somewhere, all with inhuman accuracy.

Sterling K. Webb
-------------------------------------------------
Tom Knudson wrote:

> During desert storm, the DOD often shutdown the GPS satellites at various
> times, because Iraq was using them also...
>
> Thanks, Tom
> peregrineflier