Are the armed forces ready to lead the GPS revolution?

The Global Positioning System, GPS-NAVSTAR, was a response to a military requirement, it was invented by the military, funded by them, and it is implemented by them. Yet the civil community quickly found, as early as in the 80s, the enormous benefit from using GPS. Very early in the history of the system, cost-effective applications were demonstrated in various areas such as land survey, oil drilling, agriculture, merchant navy and civil aviation. While the armed forces maintained their dedication to the system in conventional applications, the civil community was very active in finding unconventional ones, as well as very innovative and challenging augmentations to the basic system. Today, the prospective analysis for future commercial business in the user segment show that within 5 years, the civil user population will be some 100 times larger than the military user population. This ratio may well have dramatic effect on the future of the management and control structure of the GPS system. A strong signal was sent in this direction when a comprehensive US national policy on the future management and use of the US GPS was issued in March 1996. The future will show whether a balanced management and control structure can be found, to match the challenge of such a world wide success