Going to War - GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones - page 115

The storm created problems for the coalition. For example, some aerial
resupply missions had to be stopped. But it created far more problems for
the disoriented Iraqis. Once again, superior technology aided Schwarzkopf 's
forces. Using the navigation devices called global positioning systems, they
always knew exactly where they were and where they were heading. These
high-tech gadgets, based on digital coordinates of positions and satellite
connections, could tell soldiers how far they were from pre-set targets even
as sand blew sideways into their faces. Rampaging out of whipping sand
on Iraqis looking in the other direction, or, later, out of the sight of soldiers
who did not even know the coalition was inside Iraq, the allied forces had
an effect that was indeed as sudden, dramatic, and enveloping as thunder
and lightning. 56
Improvisation Saves the Day
Before troops could employ gps in the conflict, the military had to overcome
several problems. Foremost was the shortage of receivers and accurate maps.
Because the system would not be complete until 1993, the services had not yet
acquired many receivers, much less trained personnel widely in their use. The
Army owned just five hundred demonstration receivers when troops began
deploying to Saudi Arabia for Operation Desert Shield. 57 Despite general unfa-
miliarity with gps, its impact was immediate and troops quickly embraced the
new technology, as illustrated by the response of an assistant signal officer
from the 11th Air Defense Brigade when asked about gps receivers: “If you
mean those green position locators, they are lifesavers. Whenever we sent
someone to another unit for coordination, we entered that unit's ten-digit
coordinates and the slgr (small, lightweight gps receiver) directs them to the
command post. Before, we had people getting lost in the desert, but since we
got the three gps receivers, nobody has got lost.” 58
The slgr, or “Slugger,” a version of Trimble's Trimpack receiver discussed
in the preceding chapter, was the most widely fielded receiver in the Persian
Gulf War, with about four thousand ultimately deployed. 59 Although it lacked
the ability to decode the more precise, encrypted (P code) signals used by the
military's an/psn- 8 “Manpack” gps receiver built by Rockwell Collins, it was
more versatile. The Manpack, about the size of two stacked shoeboxes, weighed
seventeen pounds and was portable in the sense that a soldier could wear one
on a special backpack-style frame. In practice, it more often was lashed to a