Oleg Zabluda's blog
Sunday, October 23, 2016
 
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1991 Persian Gulf War [...] The Army’s decision to rely on GPS was a big gamble. A fully operational GPS constellation requires 24 satellites, something the U.S. would not achieve until April 1995. In early 1991 [...] constellation included only 16 satellites, and six of those were older research and development units repurposed to help with the war effort. [...] could align long enough to provide about 19 hours each day. Accuracy would be within 16 meters, give or take, better than earlier GPS systems that had a several kilometers margin of error [...] GPS receivers were also in short supply. For starters, there were only 550 PSN-8 Manpack GPS receivers to go around. Troops fortunate enough to be issued Manpacks mounted these eight-kilogram devices—which cost $45,000 apiece—to their vehicles. A second, more portable option was the 1.8-kilogram AN/PSN-10 Small Lightweight GPS Receiver (SLGR), or “slugger.” The military had about 3,500 of the Trimble Navigation–made SLGR devices available for use in the Gulf War. “You would hear stories about Air Force, Navy and Army personnel having mom and dad send them civilian GPS receivers" [...] One of the most popular was the $3,000 NAV 1000M Receiver, which Magellan Corp. had been selling to boaters, hikers and other adventurers since the late 1980s.
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helping the U.S. Army’s VII Corps and XVIII Airborne Corps initiate a [...] “left hook” [...] With only 3,000 GPS devices available for its contingent of 40,000 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, howitzer guns and cavalry, the Army units advanced more than 200 kilometers in two days through largely uncharted desert before engaging the Iraqi Republican Guard in the decisive Battle of 73 Easting on February 26. The battle’s name provides some insight into how much the coalition relied on advanced navigational aids just to reach the enemy—“73 easting” is a north–south line on a map in the middle of the desert as opposed to a town, roadway or some other physical reference point.
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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gps-and-the-world-s-first-space-war/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gps-and-the-world-s-first-space-war

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