Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
dnsdp, including program planning, user equipment design, and system tests.
In addition, civil user needs should be considered in the design of the space-
borne equipment.” 20 Even before the Pentagon created the joint program in
1973, the top brass instructed navseg, the interservice committee assembled
to hammer out a joint navigation satellite system, to add air traffic control to
the mix. In a November 2, 1970, memo to navseg members, Chairman Harry
Sonnemann wrote,
The desire to consider how a navigation satellite system could satisfy the
air traffic control needs has broadened the scope of the problem. The fact
that the air traffic control portion probably should be active, and primarily
oriented towards communications has decidedly slowed progress. The ever-
tightening budget has also had a braking effect on the desire of the partici-
pants to be very positive in stating their needs or making any commitments.
Thus, as I leave the chairmanship, I find that we are further away from a
solution than when I took over, as the dod systems concept has become one
of the subsets of a national navigation problem. 21
This single paragraph captures the dynamics surrounding early efforts to
develop what would become gps. Just as the Army, Air Force, and Navy had
different needs and concerns, the interests of air traffic control were not the
same as those of the military, which wanted a passive system— one that broad-
cast signals without any need for a user to activate it by transmitting a signal
that would disclose his location.
Sticker Shock
Controlling costs—the original impetus for the Pentagon in seeking a single,
multiuser navigation satellite system—remained an ever-present concern.
Sonnemann recently recalled that after the Air Force system 621b was deemed
too expensive given the number of users—fewer than one thousand aircraft
that would be equipped with receivers—other users within the military ser-
vices as well as from the civilian community were identified and solicited. The
response from both quarters was tentative. “A wide range of military and poten-
tial civilian applications were identified, but those interested took a 'wait and
see' position, that is, when the system's capabilities were verified with on-orbit
data and its limitations identified, these potential customers would include
gps as another option to their existing capabilities, but not before,” Sonnemann
wrote. 22 This meant that despite its wide range of promising uses, getting gps
 
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