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Galileo Under Fire
15 Nov 2007
Galileo, Europe's multi-billion € version of the US global positioning system (GPS), which was originally supposed to become operational next year but is now delayed until around 2014, is a seriously flawed venture, says Professor David Last, President of the Royal Institution of Navigation (RINA).
Addressing over 200 specialists at the RINA's NAV 07 Conference in London at the end of October, Last debunked notions that Europe's satnav answer to the US would ensure total independence immune to jamming or interference, despite being technically compatible and sharing common frequencies with GPS. It was also a fallacy that Galileo would guarantee a major new industry, he added.
Pointing out that the US has a new and better GPS on the way, that Russia is busy upgrading its comparable Glonass network, and China, India and Japan are each planning their own systems, Last hazarded that the entire EU Galileo satnav enterprise, which has so far cost over €1bn and will need at least another €2bn raided from current agricultural budgets, is probably going to be an also-ran. A realistic, sustainable future policy for radionavigation in Europe is now overdue, he said, and that means a new vision of how the 30 satellite Galileo network will be funded and operated.
