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The NY Times ran an article yesterday about the vulnerabilities of GPS. It’s here if you desire to read it.
It mostly reiterates what I’ve written in The Green Beret Preparation and Survival Guide. Bottom line: we are way too dependent on GPS — and its used for much than navigation. We use GPS signals for time-keeping. Thus the stock market and many other parts of our society are dependent on it. The one interesting thing the article covers that I don’t touch on is that it’s getting easier to spook a GPS signal. I often wonder if some of those Navy ship collissions occurred because the GPS navigation was spoofed? I hope all naval officers still know how to use compass and sextant? Anyone know?
GPS stands for Global Positioning System. A basic understanding of GPS is useful so we understand what it can and can’t do.
Let’s get a little geeky. The GPS receiver gets a signal from each satellite with the exact time it is sent. By subtracting the time the signal was sent from the time it was received the GPS receiver can calculate how far it is from the satellite. The receiver knows where the satellite is in orbit so it has a fix on that satellite. For our GPS receiver to work it needs to make contact and get a fix with at least 3 GPS satellites for a two dimensional fix (latitude and longitude) and 4 satellites for a three dimensional fix (adding in…
