Article

2022-04-13 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Putin is holding GPS hostage – Here's how to get it back

[C4ISRnet] "GPS is an enormous bargaining chip for Vladimir Putin" — George Beebe, former Chief Russia Analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency

On November 15, 2021 a missile streaked into space from Russia, destroying a retired Russian satellite. The remnant debris endangered other satellites and the International Space Station crew that included Russian cosmonauts.

Russia’s anti-satellite test was meant as a clear message to the U.S.; Russia can destroy American satellites. Two weeks later a Russian news media personality bragged that Russia could bring down all 32 GPS satellites, a move that would affect nearly every facet of American life. The demonstration and subsequent threat would become a prelude to Russia’s next major act.

As Russia shot down a satellite, they were also massing troops at their border with Ukraine. When they invaded in February, the threat to American satellites became a particularly ominous deterrent to U.S. support for Ukraine.

U.S. critical infrastructure relies on precise timing and navigation signals from GPS satellites. A member of the National Security Council acknowledged this at a December public meeting saying "GPS is still a single point of failure" for America.

If GPS signals suddenly disappeared, transportation systems would immediately suffer. Everything would slow down, carry less capacity and be more dangerous. Air travel would be less efficient and safe. Delivery services would be hamstrung. Uber and Lyft would be out of business.

Posted by Besoeker 2022-04-13 10:30|| || Front Page|| [11131 views ] Top

#1 Anticipating networks and pacemakers to run amuck.

How Does GPS Network Time Synchronization Work?

My Pacemaker Is Tracking Me From Inside My Body

Posted by Skidmark 2022-04-13 11:04|| 2022-04-13 11:04|| Front Page Top

#2 Oh my god there is so much stupid in this article.

First, the satellite that the Russians shot down was in very low earth orbit. Less than 2,000km. Most of the GPS satellites are in mid-earth orbit at 20,000-26,000km. Even the US does not have a system in place to kill satellites at this altitude.

The satellites are orbiting all over the earth's surface so Russia can't get all of them. If they could reach up that high, maybe they could cause some issues over Europe and Asia and that is about it. The US also has 15 GPS satellites as backups and with newer private space companies can get them back up pretty quick.

Lastly, attacking a system like this would be a full act of war and doubtful the US and the rest of the world would just go "Oh well. We give up". It would be WWIII and the western world would start hitting Russian targets so Putie-pie might as well go full nuclear at that point.

Posted by DarthVader 2022-04-13 12:10|| 2022-04-13 12:10|| Front Page Top

#3 I think destroying commercial satellites would also be legally actionable (I know) and open the door to the US dropping any treaties it has in place preventing us from doing likewise in the future.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-04-13 12:12|| 2022-04-13 12:12|| Front Page Top

#4 Now a US spy satellite at low earth orbit that Russia knows is passing on real time information to the Ukraine... that is a different story. I'd knock that sucker out of orbit.

Posted by DarthVader 2022-04-13 12:12|| 2022-04-13 12:12|| Front Page Top

#5 I'm not in favor of the level of help we are providing now, but if we are going to, why not give them stuff that can pick up GLONASS signals and let the Russians figure out how to deal with that.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-04-13 12:15|| 2022-04-13 12:15|| Front Page Top

#6 We could, but it seems the Russians just aren't using that much "smart" munitions. Most is dumb bombs and rockets currently. Doesn't seem worth the cost. I would rather just more MANPADs and Soviet medium-altitude SAMs to deal with air power and drones.

Posted by DarthVader 2022-04-13 12:25|| 2022-04-13 12:25|| Front Page Top

#7 If GPS signals suddenly disappeared, transportation systems would immediately suffer.

Imagine a world where all drivers under the age of 30 don't take an exit, forever.

Posted by swksvolFF 2022-04-13 13:33|| 2022-04-13 13:33|| Front Page Top

#8 ^ *snort*

Posted by Frank G 2022-04-13 14:12|| 2022-04-13 14:12|| Front Page Top

#9 I think GPS is becoming less and less useful. I think smart phones triangulate between cell towers for positioning.

Posted by ruprecht 2022-04-13 15:06|| 2022-04-13 15:06|| Front Page Top

#10 I think GPS is becoming less and less useful. I think smart phones triangulate between cell towers for positioning.

For an Android phone, put it in airplane mode and pull up maps. It still finds you. That is GPS.

And it isn't just phones. Pretty much everything that can be tracked now relies on GPS. If GPS went offline tomorrow, most ships, planes and anything that needs to know where it is on the planet is, in the technical term, fucked.

GPS is more and more becoming something modern society just can't do without. Just like the internet and electricity.

Posted by DarthVader 2022-04-13 15:27|| 2022-04-13 15:27|| Front Page Top

#11 Most people can't even use a shadow and the time of day to get a rough idea of direction.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-04-13 15:29|| 2022-04-13 15:29|| Front Page Top

#12 FBMs used the precursor to “GPS” to keep track of the subs position for obvious reasons. I imagine that misses that change position use something like that also.

Posted by Papa Cookie 2022-04-13 16:23|| 2022-04-13 16:23|| Front Page Top

#13 ICBMs (ours anyway) use inertial and celestial guidance to accomplish their course. The system is refined enough that it includes adjustments for the variations in the Earth's magnetic field. Of course, an actual ICBM course is all about flying to a point deploying the bus and then the individual warheads from the bus. It's one of those things that is at once very simple and in the sense that it works at all a miracle.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-04-13 16:38|| 2022-04-13 16:38|| Front Page Top

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