Going Mainstream - GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones - page 133

million contract for waas to a consortium led by Wilcox Electric, a Northrop
subsidiary, but the project soon gained a reputation as a troubled program. 74
Within a year the faa fired Wilcox and gave the contract to Wilcox subcontrac-
tor Hughes Aircraft (acquired in 1998 by Raytheon). 75 By late 1997 the program
was under fire in Congress. Business & Commercial Aviation reporter Perry
Bradley summed up the situation this way: “waas has all the hallmarks of a
major faa program: sweeping scope, high technology, contract disputes, alle-
gations of mismanagement, questions about capabilities, congressional postur-
ing, a slipping schedule and a growing budget.” 76 Development continued, but
the goal of gps as a “sole means” navigation system for all phases of flight
through landings gradually succumbed to concerns about signal interference,
jamming, and the need for backup systems. Many ground-based beacons
remain today. When the faa activated waas on July 10, 2003, it had spent
nearly $3 billion on a system that took so long to construct, some of the regional
airlines questioned whether newer technologies might eclipse it. 77 The faa sol-
diered on. Five years later the number of certified, published waas approaches,
1,333, surpassed traditional instrument landing approaches, and the number
reached 2,300 in 2010. 78 waas remains a cornerstone of the faa's “NextGen”
overhaul of the National Airspace System, aimed at using technology to save
fuel and time, accommodate more traffic, and improve safety. waas also pro-
vides enhanced gps accuracy, availability, and integrity for a wide variety of
nonaviation users in agriculture, surveying, and surface transportation and is
a key example of national infrastructure enabled by and dependent on gps.
In 1999 the Department of Transportation entered a multiagency partner-
ship with the Coast Guard to add an inland component to the maritime dgps
network, creating the Nationwide dgps (ndgps) program. 79 Apart from early
criticism that it was redundant with waas, this expansion avoided the contro-
versy of its faa cousin. 80 More than eighty ndgps radio-beacon sites cover 92
percent of the continental United States, providing enhanced navigational
accuracy for surface transportation in addition to maritime needs. 81
Expanding Consumer Markets
President Clinton's directive included an explicit goal to “encourage private
sector investment in and use of U.S. gps technologies and services.” Because
gps originated in the U.S. military, defense contractors and domestic manu-
facturers had a head start in the marketplace. However, when eight Japanese
companies established the Japan gps Council in 1992, the group grew to