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Why military forces transferred to use GPS?

Kimmo Huosionmaa

Many times people ask, why military forces use GPS, and what is the problem with an Inertial navigation system, what is used in rockets and what has the vital role in the nuclear submarines and aircraft. The reason for that is very simple. The inertial navigation system records all route of the vehicle, and following that track could the enemy locate the secret military bases locations if they find the Inertial device in some aircraft, and this makes this system complicated.

Every change, of course, is recorded in that system and that makes easy to target the weapons to that thing, and that makes the Inertial risky. But the other reason, why GPS is more popular is, that this satellite-based system can make possible to locate own troops from the area, and that makes possible to use tactical firepower more effectively. And if the GPS is used in bombs, that system allows sending the target data straight to the bomb, when the aircraft is in airborne, and those systems can change the target very fast. This makes GPS-bomb effective against all fixed target.

This is why the jamming systems against those satellite navigation systems are under research. The system, what would someday replace the GPS is the hybrid system, there are multiple sensors. Maybe it uses GPS only in a couple of seconds, and then the system transfer to use other navigation methods like some version of Loran, or Inertial navigation system. The hybrid version of Inertial navigation would work with the same method, the beginning point of the trip would be located by using GPS, and then Inertial would continue to navigate the vehicle.

The advanced version of Loran would work like normal radio compass, but the system would use more coherent radio signals and thin areas, those system bases in Maser-technology. Those very sharply targeted transmissions allow to locate the aircraft very sharply. Also, there could be used DSMAC-(Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation) navigation, what allows those aircraft or ships navigate very sharply without GPS.

This navigation system was replaced TERCOM in the late 1980's when the lower price of the microchips made possible to create computer-based solutions for missiles and other weapons. The system is developed originally for missiles, and it bases that the cameras are making an image from the area what is under the aircraft, and that thing is compared with the images, what are in the memory of the computer. If the images are matching, the location of the vehicle is correct. And ships can use SONAR to make that image.

The most modern versions of that navigation system are using LIDAR, what is the name of the Laser-radar, what uses light in the place, where normal radars uses radio waves. This kind of new era navigation systems can make GPS old fashion, and some of them are immune to jamming. But those systems are still under the developing, except DSMAC, what is in use at the cruise missiles. That system has been in use since the first digital cameras have been in the missiles. But the use of this system in aircraft and ships is a brand new idea, and it can revolutionize the navigation.

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