Have a countermeasure backup plan?

[Motor On]

GPS is set to fail next year....

Sorry, did you think there wasn’t already enough to worry about right now? A wheezing economy, bankrupt automakers and lagging car sales still too rosy for your taste? Luckily, now we can also fret about the possibility of the Global Positioning System beginning to fail in 2010. As navigation systems have become more commonplace in cars, smart phones and other devices, the old GPS satellites that keep those nav systems on the ball have begun to fail, according to the Government Accountability Office. Meanwhile, the Air Force — which is tasked with running the GPS network — has “struggled to successfully build GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals.”
Currently, the next generation of satellites has had its launch delayed by nearly three years while coming in $870 million over budget (and counting). The first satellite of this replacement crop is now scheduled to launch in November.
This may be too late to avoid interruption in GPS service for civilian drivers and a potential headache for the military, which relies on GPS for a number of different operations.
The GAO points to a lack of leadership in GPS satellite acquisition, noting that studies have found a “lack of single point of authority for space programs” as well as high turnover in program managers.
So, President Obama, we know you’re busy and all, but if you could get around to fixing this, too, most of us have totally forgotten how to read a road map.

U.S. GAO - Global Positioning System: Significant Challenges in Sustaining and Upgrading Widely Used Capabilities

The Global Positioning System (GPS), which provides position, navigation, and timing data to users worldwide, has become essential to U.S. national security and a key tool in an expanding array of public service and commercial applications at home and abroad. The United States provides GPS data free of charge. The Air Force, which is responsible for GPS acquisition, is in the process of modernizing GPS. In light of the importance of GPS, the modernization effort, and international efforts to develop new systems, GAO was asked to undertake a broad review of GPS. Specifically, GAO assessed progress in (1) acquiring GPS satellites, (2) acquiring the ground control and user equipment necessary to leverage GPS satellite capabilities, and evaluated (3) coordination among federal agencies and other organizations to ensure GPS missions can be accomplished. To carry out this assessment, GAO's efforts included reviewing and analyzing program documentation, conducting its own analysis of Air Force satellite data, and interviewing key officials.
It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption. If not, some military operations and some civilian users could be adversely affected. (1) In recent years, the Air Force has struggled to successfully build GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals; it encountered significant technical problems that still threaten its delivery schedule; and it struggled with a different contractor. As a result, the current IIF satellite program has overrun its original cost estimate by about $870 million and the launch of its first satellite has been delayed to November 2009--almost 3 years late. (2) Further, while the Air Force is structuring the new GPS IIIA program to prevent mistakes made on the IIF program, the Air Force is aiming to deploy the next generation of GPS satellites 3 years faster than the IIF satellites. GAO's analysis found that this schedule is optimistic, given the program's late start, past trends in space acquisitions, and challenges facing the new contractor. Of particular concern is leadership for GPS acquisition, as GAO and other studies have found the lack of a single point of authority for space programs and frequent turnover in program managers have hampered requirements setting, funding stability, and resource allocation. (3) If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to. Such a gap in capability could have wide-ranging impacts on all GPS users, though there are measures the Air Force and others can take to plan for and minimize these impacts. In addition to risks facing the acquisition of new GPS satellites, the Air Force has not been fully successful in synchronizing the acquisition and development of the next generation of GPS satellites with the ground control and user equipment, thereby delaying the ability of military users to fully utilize new GPS satellite capabilities. Diffuse leadership has been a contributing factor, given that there is no single authority responsible for synchronizing all procurements and fielding related to GPS, and funding has been diverted from ground programs to pay for problems in the space segment. DOD and others involved in ensuring GPS can serve communities beyond the military have taken prudent steps to manage requirements and coordinate among the many organizations involved with GPS. However, GAO identified challenges in the areas of ensuring civilian requirements can be met and ensuring GPS compatibility with other new, potentially competing global space-based positioning, navigation, and timing systems.

How's True lock sounding now?

[trailtow]

GPS is set to fail next year....

Sorry, did you think there wasn’t already enough to worry about right now? A wheezing economy, bankrupt automakers and lagging car sales still too rosy for your taste? Luckily, now we can also fret about the possibility of the Global Positioning System beginning to fail in 2010. As navigation systems have become more commonplace in cars, smart phones and other devices, the old GPS satellites that keep those nav systems on the ball have begun to fail, according to the Government Accountability Office. Meanwhile, the Air Force — which is tasked with running the GPS network — has “struggled to successfully build GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals.”
Currently, the next generation of satellites has had its launch delayed by nearly three years while coming in $870 million over budget (and counting). The first satellite of this replacement crop is now scheduled to launch in November.
This may be too late to avoid interruption in GPS service for civilian drivers and a potential headache for the military, which relies on GPS for a number of different operations.
The GAO points to a lack of leadership in GPS satellite acquisition, noting that studies have found a “lack of single point of authority for space programs” as well as high turnover in program managers.
So, President Obama, we know you’re busy and all, but if you could get around to fixing this, too, most of us have totally forgotten how to read a road map.

U.S. GAO - Global Positioning System: Significant Challenges in Sustaining and Upgrading Widely Used Capabilities

The Global Positioning System (GPS), which provides position, navigation, and timing data to users worldwide, has become essential to U.S. national security and a key tool in an expanding array of public service and commercial applications at home and abroad. The United States provides GPS data free of charge. The Air Force, which is responsible for GPS acquisition, is in the process of modernizing GPS. In light of the importance of GPS, the modernization effort, and international efforts to develop new systems, GAO was asked to undertake a broad review of GPS. Specifically, GAO assessed progress in (1) acquiring GPS satellites, (2) acquiring the ground control and user equipment necessary to leverage GPS satellite capabilities, and evaluated (3) coordination among federal agencies and other organizations to ensure GPS missions can be accomplished. To carry out this assessment, GAO's efforts included reviewing and analyzing program documentation, conducting its own analysis of Air Force satellite data, and interviewing key officials.
It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption. If not, some military operations and some civilian users could be adversely affected. (1) In recent years, the Air Force has struggled to successfully build GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals; it encountered significant technical problems that still threaten its delivery schedule; and it struggled with a different contractor. As a result, the current IIF satellite program has overrun its original cost estimate by about $870 million and the launch of its first satellite has been delayed to November 2009--almost 3 years late. (2) Further, while the Air Force is structuring the new GPS IIIA program to prevent mistakes made on the IIF program, the Air Force is aiming to deploy the next generation of GPS satellites 3 years faster than the IIF satellites. GAO's analysis found that this schedule is optimistic, given the program's late start, past trends in space acquisitions, and challenges facing the new contractor. Of particular concern is leadership for GPS acquisition, as GAO and other studies have found the lack of a single point of authority for space programs and frequent turnover in program managers have hampered requirements setting, funding stability, and resource allocation. (3) If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to. Such a gap in capability could have wide-ranging impacts on all GPS users, though there are measures the Air Force and others can take to plan for and minimize these impacts. In addition to risks facing the acquisition of new GPS satellites, the Air Force has not been fully successful in synchronizing the acquisition and development of the next generation of GPS satellites with the ground control and user equipment, thereby delaying the ability of military users to fully utilize new GPS satellite capabilities. Diffuse leadership has been a contributing factor, given that there is no single authority responsible for synchronizing all procurements and fielding related to GPS, and funding has been diverted from ground programs to pay for problems in the space segment. DOD and others involved in ensuring GPS can serve communities beyond the military have taken prudent steps to manage requirements and coordinate among the many organizations involved with GPS. However, GAO identified challenges in the areas of ensuring civilian requirements can be met and ensuring GPS compatibility with other new, potentially competing global space-based positioning, navigation, and timing systems.

How's True lock sounding now?

haha ya I was watching the news and they started talking about it and I was like wtf

[category4]

i can draw unemployment if GPS fails I won't be able to find my way to work!!

[supercowpowers]

We don't have RLCs or speedcams. My speed trap database is in my head. Maybe if I went on a trip and couldn't use the Trapster POIs in my GPS I could have problems, but then my GPS wouldn't be working so I'd be stopped in a rest area somewhere looking at a paper map anyway which would obliterate the time saved by trying to speed...

[srtga]

Man, the interstate and GPS are the only things I get out of my tax $$.

The interstates are crumbling and now the GPS grid is going tits-up... Why do they still need the money?

[category4]

Man, the interstate and GPS are the only things I get out of my tax $$.

The interstates are crumbling and now the GPS grid is going tits-up... Why do they still need the money?

The freeloaders don't have enough yet!

[rocky2]

I don't see how they would let the GPS systems fail seems like a national security risk. Isn't alot of the stuff the Army uses dependent on GPS.

[AirMoore]

Thank goodness for a CB... for some reason its an old technology that all this new cr*p still can't beat out there on the interstates!


With that said: It would suck... because I enjoy being able to go anywhere at anytime, and have my GPS recalculate within 5 seconds if I decide to change my route...

I bet GPS companies will get sued out the **** if these systems tank quickly, a GPS that cannot even find your position on the globe, let alone give drivers directions.... RUTTTT ROOOOOO.


I highly doubt that this will come to fruition to be honest, ESPECIALLY for military purposes... sounds like another Y2K to me.

[KaPro]

^^^X2.