Clarification about the term "GPS Shutdown"

Clarification about the term "GPS Shutdown"

As has always been the case: "GPS Shutdown" means turning
off the C/A signal used by the civil community, but leaving
the encrypted P(Y) codes on the L1 and L2 carriers turned
on for military (and other authorized users) interrupted.

A long time ago it was necessary for military receiver to
use the C/A code in the process of acquiring P(Y)
signals. This is no longer the case... And the new
M-codes on launched beginning in 2005 contribute to
making this "easier".

Killing the existing C/A code and other new "civilian"
codes on L5 and L1 will disrupt commerce, security,
timing and industry many orders of magnitude greater than
even a terrorist nuclear (nu-ku-lar) attack! The Bush
Administration needs to "get real"!

There's my editorial for 2004
-Sam
http://edu-observatory.org/gps/gps_books.html

 

Sam - I must have missed something - what policy or pronouncment of the Bush
administration is this in reference to? Thx.

 

Sam, keep your political opinions to yourself. You're going to make an ass
of yourself. And, you're wrong.

 

Ahh - never mind the reference - I found it at the other news group. The
joys of cross posting!

Not too many years ago, the idea of having a policy in place that would
require US military pilots to shoot down unarmed planes full of Americans if
a terrorist highjacking and plan to use it as a bomb, a la 9-11 would be
completely unthinkable. Now it is a grim reality. I think the article you
cited spelled out that the administration realizes that shutting down the
civilian GPS system would have dire impacts, but short interruptions might
be necesssary to deal with the remote instance of a civilian GPS being used
to somehow guide a terrorist or terrorist device to a "high profile" target.
I don't see that as any more disturbing or absurd than the notion we might
have to shoot down a whole plane full of American civilians to prevent an
even worse scenerio. I think the administration is "getting real." There
should be policies in place governing the use of last ditch strategies for
the avoidance of terrorist activities. Hopefully they will never be used.
That's my counterpoint editorial for 2004.

 

He's probably referring to this newswire story:

"ush Prepares for Possible GPS Shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily
disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a
national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational
technology, the White House said Wednesday.

Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under
only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration
official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the White House on
condition of anonymity.

The GPS system is vital to commercial aviation and marine shipping.

The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans
to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S.
navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The
European Union is developing a $4.8 billion program, called Galileo.

The military increasingly uses GPS technology to move troops across
large areas and direct bombs and missiles. Any government-ordered
shutdown or jamming of the GPS satellites would be done in ways to
limit disruptions to navigation and related systems outside the
affected area, the White House said.


``This is not something you would do lightly,'' said James A. Lewis,
director of technology policy for the Washington-based Center for
Strategic and International Studies. ``It's clearly a big deal. You
have to give them credit for being so open about what they're going to
do.''

President Clinton abandoned the practice in May 2000 of deliberately
degrading the accuracy of civilian navigation signals, a technique
known as ``selective availability.''

The White House said it will not reinstate that practice, but said the
president could decide to disable parts of the network for national
security purposes.

The directives to the Defense Department and the Homeland Security
Department were part of a space policy that Bush signed this month. It
designates the GPS network as a critical infrastructure for the U.S.
government. Part of the new policy is classified; other parts were
disclosed Wednesday.

The White House said the policies were aimed at improving the stability
and performance of the U.S. navigation system, which Bush pledged will
continue to be made available for free.

The U.S. network is comprised of more than two dozen satellites that
act as beacons, sending location-specific radio signals that are
recognized by devices popular with motorists, hikers, pilots and
sailors.

Bush also said the government will make the network signals more
resistant to eliberate or inadvertent jamming.

On the Net:

Office of Science & Technology Policy: www.ostp.gov"
- Craig <reply to list. Email address in header is no longer checked>

 

Think of the impact on network timing, time dissemination, surveying,
mining, robotic earth moving, asset management, parcel tracking, agriculture,
fault monitoring, mapping, air traffic safety and even the majority of GPS
receivers used by our troupes! Think about it! Shutting it off in time of
crisis (or ever) make no sense what-so-ever.

 

If I were a terrorist and I would build a device requiring GPS to work,
I would steal some stupid enough 18-year-old US-army-soldier's GPS, that
works on the military signal, easy enough. Bin Laden, would you like my
bank account number so you can give me lotsa money for this great idea?

--
Hans Fleischmann

-nl
PGP-KeyID: 0x676FB35B - A26E A57D C006 C19B 9A42 A688 C241 C255 676F B35B
+31650525455

 

Think of the impact on network timing, time dissemination, surveying,
mining, robotic earth moving, asset management, parcel tracking, agriculture,
fault monitoring, mapping, air traffic safety and even the majority of GPS
receivers used by our troupes! Think about it! Shutting it off in time of
crisis (or ever) make no sense what-so-ever.

 

An excellent counterpoint and one with which I fully agree.

Before anybody else gets their head twisted by partisan politics, read the
official document as released to the public. Granted some parts are left
out for national security reasons, but the document Bush has signed will
improve on our existing GPS system. There are far more good things in the
document than the unlikely chance that the signals would be temporarily
disabled in the event of a national emergency. In point of fact, all GPS
users should laud the administrations efforts.

 

Do you really believe that the people in charge are able to grasp the
point that's being made in this paragraph? Personally I suspect they can't
rationalise in that way at all.

 

An additional observation or 2:

The knee-jerk (partisan) reaction I am seeing here fails to note an important fact.
This is not a global shutdown they are talking about, but a regional or even
very localized shutdown and only in very dire circumstances.

I'm not denying that there would be civilian hardship in the effected region,
but the rhetoric I'm seeing here would lead the naive to believe that everything
everywhere would come grinding to a halt. Which is just not true.

Also, I'd bet that the criterion requiring a shutdown are quite high. I'd bet that
the possible effects of such an event are magnitudes more catastrophic than the
effects of temporarily shutting down GPS in a certain area.

 

Hans:

My understanding is that US military GPSs require the user to enter a code
that is frequently changed. This feature would make theft of a US military
GPS mostly useless, and suggest that if a terrorist had a use for GPS, the
civilian signal would be far more useful that the military - more reason to
have a plan to deal with terrorist uses of civilian GPS.

 

And where are you going to get the keys to decrypt the p signal?

 

Plus of course another minor detail: The very situation that made a
regional shutdown necessary would probably have made civilian life much
harder anyway.

Let's say that a regional shutdown in the area of Zlobenia has become
necessary because the US is at war with Zlobenia and Zlobenian troops
where seen equipped with civilian GPS receivers.

Just how much would Zlobenian civilians be affected in their farming,
mining, parcel tracking and civilian air traffic, seeing that they
won't do very much of this on account of their country just beeing
invaded by the US Army?

Juergen Nieveler

 

Sam,

In the past, I have respected your academic insights and technical GPS information.
Normally, you can be counted on to disseminate useful and accurate information.

But, during the election, you 'lifted the skirt' a bit and showed which way you leaned.
But, you didn't let it effect your contributions here.... until now.

In this case, I'm afraid you have let your political views taint the information you are
passing on here. Too bad.

I know that you (really) know better.

1.This is a contingency plan. For a dire emergency only. Better to at least have a plan in
place for an emergency, than sit there doing nothing if the feces DOES ever impact the
rotating blades. Would you rather just have us caught totally off guard?

2. An event triggering a shutdown most certainly would be magnitudes worse then the
inconvenience caused by the TEMPORARY lack of GPS nav and timing.

3. You know as well as anyone the ability is in place to degrade or inhibit the use of GPS
regionally and locally. Greatly limiting the impact a shutdown would have.

 

I'm saying that more harm than good is done by interrupting an infrastructure
that society, institutions and government are becoming more reliant every day.
In fact, it's pretty hard to come up with *any* advantage to shutting down the
civilian signals.

Care to define "dire emergency"?

I'd be happy to argue the merits on both sides in this forum.

 

Plus the terrorists with their stolen equipment and codes. So only the
terrorists and the military would be able to navigate.

 

Did anyone tell John Walker that?

 

From the same spy who sold you the equipment.