Oh well >>>>>

[Ayjay]

Looks like we may have to use our old road maps again for a while.....

----------------------------------------------------

The sat-nav system that many motorists rely on could start to fail next year, the US government has warned.

A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) claims that there has been mismanagement and under-investment in America’s satellite system by the US Air Force.

Officials now say the 20-year-old global positioning system is in urgent need of upgrading to stop it crumbling.

The system, known as Navstar GPS, is already £562 million over budget and delays have further hampered its development, said the US Government Acc*ountability Office.

The first replacement satellite is not due until November, but was expected two years ago. The lack of investment means that both military and civilian systems could be affected.

"It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption," the GAO warned.

[Sharkman]

damn Americans! they invented something cool share it with the rest for decades and now is falling apart.

[raptor]

terrorists did something to the sats

[Tom Nikolai]

THEY say there will be issues and failures but the USAF is saying everything's fine. We shall see....................remember, we're always one EMP away from the 19th century!!

:D :eek:

[geoff malter]

THEY say there will be issues and failures but the USAF is saying everything's fine. We shall see....................remember, we're always one EMP away from the 19th century!!

:D :eek:

You're right, Tom. There's been too little discussed about an attack using EMP. Or maybe it's purposely not discussed, so as not to give the bad guys ideas (although I'm sure they already know all about it).

[NickIslander]

You're right, Tom. There's been too little discussed about an attack using EMP. Or maybe it's purposely not discussed, so as not to give the bad guys ideas (although I'm sure they already know all about it).

Oh the bad guys know all right... not the easiest thing to cause an effective EMP tho' (to put it mildly).

For 20 years plus, military and security sensitive gear has been designed with EMP in mind and there are well known techniques to mitigate the damage. It's our commercial equipment which would really suffer, so I'm not disagreeing with the "return to 19th century" comment above! Mechanical watches would be OK though (if it still mattered much!) :)