National Space Policy: NSDD-42 (issued on July 4th, 1982)

From Derek Lyons:
Steven James Forsberg wrote:

: The problem with that is... We had no need of such a capability.
: What an SSBN needs is a method of knowing it's position *without*
: having to surface, or preferably even coming close to the surface. We
: already had that capability with SINS, SINS/ESGM, and with ESGN.
: From the point of view of an SSBN, GPS is 'nice-to-have', not 'must
: have'.

I'm not certain I quite agree with that.

You may do so. I'll refute as best I can without risking a
vacation in Kansas. (Do keep in mind I did this stuff for a living.)

People who did navigation for a living knew that GPS was so good that
it was going to force thousands of them into unemployment.

The USN definitely needed such a capability. For starters, SSBNs launch
from relatively close to the surface, and in launching advertise themselves
very well, and are not supposed to be anywhere near an enemy when they
do. Thus, coming close to or at the surface is not such a liability.

SSBN's launch from considerably beneath periscope depth. Transiting
to PD and back to launch depth not only increases the length of the
launch process, but increases the 'something is up' signature. We
won't launch if we know we are being shadowed, but for obvious reasons
we always behave as if we are being shadowed and just don't know it.

(According to that statement, SSBNs would never launch.)

Thus coming close to the surface does the two things the USN has
always avoided (and spent a great deal of money to avoid[1]);
increasing the length of the launch sequence and increasing the launch
signature. Thus coming to or close to the surface is a liability.

[1] For example, modifying the valves used to pressurize the launch
tubes in order to reduce the noise they generated. The pressurization
and flow control valves in the hovering system were also modified for
greater quietness because setting up that system as we made other
launch preps was a noisy and very obvious signature.

Across the history of the SSBN force reducing the indiscretion rate
and reducing the length and signature of the launch process have been
right behind accuracy (and not far behind at that) in the goals and
requirements of the system. Thus LORAN capability was added to the
bouy and wire (discussed below) and the BQS-3 secure fathometer
developed to avoid surface exposure. We did/do have mast mounted
antenna for Transit/GPS, but these are used as little as possible to
avoid going near the surface.

This is particularly true if you are going to be using satcomms for any
purpose - verification, mission update, etc.

We don't, not really. Satcomm is a backup for two other systems, one
which allows us to patrol deep (the bouy) and another which allows us
to patrol near (but not breaking as satcomm requires) the surface (the
wire). Also, SSIXS is a store-and-forward system (which requires
interrogation by the SSBN) rather than the continuous comms provided
by the systems the surface fleet and the rest of the DoD uses.

Note the strict definition of continuous comm here.

ELF != broadband

Imagine sub crews trying to surf the internet at a baud rate of 5.
Thats "5" as in "5.0". Not 5.0k. Just plain five.

Talk about comm brevity. Bubbleheads redefined the term.

Secondly, the USN wanted to be able to use SSBN launched missiles
in counterfire, not a a countervalue, role. You can nuke a city without too
much accuracy, but if you want to plink hardened silos and buried targets
accuracy becomes much more important.

(Counter_force_ is the standard compliment to countervalue. I know
that college profs have a way of inventing new terminology!)

Certainly accuracy is important, but SSBN/SLBM system design also has
to consider issues (outlined above) that an ICBM system does not.
That was a prime driver behind the development of the ESGM/ESGN. Not
only was it more accurate than SINS, but it also required fewer and
less frequent (possibly detectable) external updates to maintain
overall system accuracy.

Here you are talking about late-90s technology.

We were talking about satellite navigation, a concept as old as
Sputnik[+]. Notice that the first Transit satellite was launched in
*1959*.

Notice also that the first sub-launched ballistic missile happened a
mere three months after the first successful Transit satellite reached
orbit.
(One reference- http://www.redsword.com/GPS/old/sum_his.htm)

I don't see this as a mere coincidence, Derek. Accurate navigation is
a requirement for accurate missiles. Satellites provided that.


[+] - An interesting story is how the concept of satellite navigation
dates back to the early days of Sputnik. Folks at Johns Hopkins were
able to work an orbit determination for Sputnik based on the doppler
shift of its beeps.

It was soon reasoned that just as measurements from a known ground
location could be used to determine an unknown satellite's orbit, the
converse applied as well. Measurements of a known satellite's orbit
could be used to determine an unknown ground location.


~ CT

From Peter Stickney:

The big military beneficiary of GPS was the Army. The biggest problem
all commanders have had throughout history hasn't been finding the
enemy, but ficuring out where you own troops are. Maps get misread,
phase lines misreported, terrain features mis-identified, etc.
Nowadays, it's possible for a GPS-equyipped army to have a single,
undisuptable source for position information that isn't as susceptible
to being flummoxed by teh ministrations of a 2nd Lt.

The "biggest problem" of land commanders was far surpassed by the
primacy of nuclear weapons as the focal point of Cold War strategy and
funding.

US Army soldiers were non-players.

I totally agree that the Army had the most beneficiaries. But as far
as the justification for funding GPS, this third service experienced a
total eclipse by the Air Force and Navy.

Notice that DNSS was created from Air Force and Navy programs. This
isn't to say that the Army didn't ask for their own separate program
like the AF 621B or Navy's Timation. But it's not hard to imagine a
scene where the Army chief of staff approaches the SecDef...

Army: "Sir, we would like to have a multibillion dollar sat nav
program
so that my soldiers won't get lost in the field."

SecDef: "I have REAL PROBLEMS I'm trying to solve."

The AIr Force's biggest problems, wrt GPS vs. on-board targeting
systems, is that it's only useful for weapons direction if you
actually know where the target is. Even today, most of the world's
maps aren't usable. (Show me the Syrian/Iraqi border for example -
it's never been properly surveyed, and you can't tell where it is, on
the ground.) This doesn't even include stuff like teh deliberate
disinformation that the Soviets engaged in, misstating the position of
geographic features and significant facilities by a wide margin.

The vast majority of Cold War targets *had* known locations.

(I'm not disagreeing with your point about mobile targets, its just
that SIOP planners took this into account and so they pointed their
warheads at places they knew would be vulnerable.)

(Yes, we're using GPS-aided weapons now. (Although INS is actually
the primary, and the GPS system provides updates) But in those cases,
either the target is spotted adn located by a nobserver who now,
through GPS, knows their own position, and can thus provide a good
location independant of the cartography, or teh target is spotted by
systems on board the aircraft - the same sort of deal, now that the
airplane can tell where it is.)

I don't know how you came to the conclusion that INS is primary. GPS
directly gives position and velocity information. INS is totally
useless without fixing a position.

As far as aerospace applications are concerned, they work together as
an integrated nav system. Things that fly move too fast for GPS alone
to be much good. A little known fact is that even "GPS bombs" have
their own miniaturized inertial systems built in.

....single use only, of course.


As opposed to thinking of one as primary and the other as secondary,
the industry treats them as an integrated _unit_. Even on the space
shuttle, the system is known by the acronym "SIGI" (pronounced
"siggy") which stands for Space Integrated GPS-INS.

More info:
http://content.honeywell.com/dses/pr...aunch/sigi.htm


~ CT

From Scott Kozel:
(Stuf4) wrote:

From Scott Kozel:
Steve Hix wrote:
From Ami Silberman:
"Stuf4" wrote
From Steve Hix:

What offensive weaponry, in particular?

This was addressed early on in this thread. Examples given from that
June 12th post are ICBMs as offensive space weaponry,

They're just *very* long-range artillery. Not space-based currently,
either.

The Soviets also considered ICBMs to be long-range artillery.

and GPS as providing offensive weaponry capability.

Pure baloney, any way you slice it.

Accurate ICBMs and SLBMs existed by the thousands, on both sides of the
Iron Curtain, long before GPS ever existed.

I don't see how those facts refute anything I've stated.

GPS is not "offensive space-based weaponry", and for you to assert that
it is, shows you have an agenda to post disinformation about the topic.

If you're concerned with disinformation, you might want to be more
careful about the words you choose to put quotes around, because that
isn't what I said.

And if you don't see how GPS was funded for its offensive capability,
I suggest that you review the plethora of information in the links
provided in this thread alone.

A grand total of -ZERO- of those words came from me.


The words I did use were "offensive weaponry capability".

So what are we disagreeing on here? Perhaps you have a problem with
the adjective "offensive".

Do you think that the military developed GPS for *defense*? They are
in the business of killing people. They use technology to kill people
more efficiently. The justification for funding multiples of billions
of dollars for GPS fits right in with that.

Perhaps you have a problem with the term "weaponry capability". What
examples would you like to examine? Nuclear bomber capability? SLBM
capability? GPS bomb capability?!

I'll go back to my original point:

GPS was not funded so that you can have a moving map in your car for
your daily commute to work.


I do agree with a particular point you made. I do have an agenda. My
goal has been stated clearly several times on this forum:

I strive for accurate space history.


Consider the masses who make experience a daily scene like driving
their car on the interstate using a GPS moving map, go to their office
and use the internet to check the weather radar... Totally oblivious
that all of these systems:

- Interstate highways,
- GPS,
- Internet,
- Weather sats

All were derived from nuclear motivations of the Cold War. That's the
story that accurate space history tells. If you don't see how GPS
fits into that. If you don't see how it came about as a system for
increasing offensive weaponry capability, then I am glad to consider
any perspectives that you have to offer.

I am here to learn from others. And to share what I know. By all
means, please take what you like and discard the rest. I appreciate
all constructive feedback because that helps me achieve my "agenda".


~ CT

: Does anyone remember TERCOM guidance for cruise missiles? The acronym stood
: for TERrain COMparision and tried to fit output from a mapping radar in the
: missile to a digital map, to figure out where it was. It sucked, but it was
: eventually brute-forced to work. This was because we didn't have any decent

We had very good maps of the USSR. Of course we had to make them
ourselves. TERCOM wasn't bad, andindeed some of its descendants are
still in use thuogh now they often find spots on targets and not just
valleysand roads.

regards,
---------------------------

B

: Notice that DNSS was created from Air Force and Navy programs. This
: isn't to say that the Army didn't ask for their own separate program
: like the AF 621B or Navy's Timation. But it's not hard to imagine a
: scene where the Army chief of staff approaches the SecDef...

The Army did have its "own" system into the late 60s and
early 70s, called SECOR. It was used extensively for geodetic survey
and pre0surveying launch locations for army missiles. Like its
contemporaries, it was not designed for "tactical" use like GPS.
One thing to keep in mind about GPS is that it has worked so much better
than most hoped for. With continuing advances in electronics manufacture
and computers it has become possilbe to makerelatively cheap/reliable
units for the smallest echelons. Originally there were doubts as to how
practical it would be for aircraft, for example. Its tunred out to be
a wonder. I
There was a re-organization in the 60s that rationalized a lot of
the space projects, expecially as there was increasing overlap between
"black" NRO systems and 'mundane' DoD efforts. The Navy was put in charge of
timekeeping and precision time interval technology, more or less, and
GPS ended up being one facet of that. It was a traditional mission, the Navy
had been keeping time since noon "dropping the ball" in DC in the 1850s.
Just a tad bit more acccurate these days. :-)

regards,
---------------------------

(Stuf4) wrote:

From Scott Kozel:
(Stuf4) wrote:
From Scott Kozel:

The Soviets also considered ICBMs to be long-range artillery.

Accurate ICBMs and SLBMs existed by the thousands, on both sides of the
Iron Curtain, long before GPS ever existed.

I don't see how those facts refute anything I've stated.

GPS is not "offensive space-based weaponry", and for you to assert that
it is, shows you have an agenda to post disinformation about the topic.

If you're concerned with disinformation, you might want to be more
careful about the words you choose to put quotes around, because that
isn't what I said.

What I put in quotes, is a paraphrase of what you were asserting.

And if you don't see how GPS was funded for its offensive capability,
I suggest that you review the plethora of information in the links
provided in this thread alone.

Given that you have not posted one single jot about the USSR's offensive
ballistic missile systems that the U.S. was trying to defend against
during the Cold War, nor about the USSR's "hunter killer" sattelites
which actually -were- an offensive spaced-based weapon, I have to
question everything that you have posted and wonder why you are digging
down so deep to construct your anti-U.S. rants, and complaining about a
communication system.

Do you think that the military developed GPS for *defense*? They are
in the business of killing people. They use technology to kill people
more efficiently. The justification for funding multiples of billions
of dollars for GPS fits right in with that.

GPS is incapable of killing a single person.

GPS was not funded so that you can have a moving map in your car for
your daily commute to work.

"Originally designated the NAVSTAR (Navigation System with Timing And
Ranging) Global Positioning System, GPS was developed by the US
Department of Defense to provide all-weather round-the-clock navigation
capabilities for military ground, sea, and air forces. Since its
implementation, GPS has also become an integral asset in numerous
civilian applications and industries around the globe, including
recreational uses (e.g. boating, aircraft, hiking), corporate vehicle
fleet tracking, and surveying".

http://leonardo.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/Programs/gps.html

From Steven James Forsberg:
: Notice that DNSS was created from Air Force and Navy programs. This
: isn't to say that the Army didn't ask for their own separate program
: like the AF 621B or Navy's Timation. But it's not hard to imagine a
: scene where the Army chief of staff approaches the SecDef...

The Army did have its "own" system into the late 60s and
early 70s, called SECOR.

I wasn't saying that the Army didn't have any sat-nav system. My
comment was regarding *quality*. High performance nav systems require
high dollar investment in research.

A general statement about funding during the Cold War is that the Air
Force and Navy got the lion's share.

The Triad was...

2 x AF,
1 x Navy,
0 x Army.


It was used extensively for geodetic survey
and pre0surveying launch locations for army missiles. Like its
contemporaries, it was not designed for "tactical" use like GPS.
One thing to keep in mind about GPS is that it has worked so much better
than most hoped for. With continuing advances in electronics manufacture
and computers it has become possilbe to makerelatively cheap/reliable
units for the smallest echelons. Originally there were doubts as to how
practical it would be for aircraft, for example. Its tunred out to be
a wonder. I

Here's where that hypothetical scene comes in...

We can guess that the Army wanted a system with performance specs
along the lines of 621B/Timation, but research for this would require
big bucks. Someone at OSD had to prioritize which services would get
how much. And this required a judgement of projected return on each
dollar of investment. With the Army having little control over nukes,
they get little priority for funding.

(This happened with *lots* more programs beside sat-nav.)

There was a re-organization in the 60s that rationalized a lot of
the space projects, expecially as there was increasing overlap between
"black" NRO systems and 'mundane' DoD efforts. The Navy was put in charge of
timekeeping and precision time interval technology, more or less, and
GPS ended up being one facet of that. It was a traditional mission, the Navy
had been keeping time since noon "dropping the ball" in DC in the 1850s.
Just a tad bit more acccurate these days. :-)

No doubt about the accuracy of atomic clocks compared to sundials!

But as far as how long the US Navy has been keeping time, I'd go back
a lot earlier than the 1850s. And if you meant to say how long the
_USNO_ has been keeping time, their official site states that their
time-ball in DC started in 1845 (ref-
http://www.usno.navy.mil/command_history.html).

Well before the US Navy had a USNO, they kept time and communicated
it. There's a long history of time being critical to ship navigation.
While latitude can be directly measured, longitude measurements are a
function of time. This is a necessary result of Earth rotation
symmetry.

While time-balls provided a visual synchronization for clocks, the
older "technology" of bells communicated an aural synchronization.
The word 'clock' came from the word that meant 'bell'. While the very
word 'navigate' came from the same origin as the word 'Navy'. The
Latin 'navis' simply means 'ship'.

I'd say that the US Navy has been keeping time since the very first
day of the US Navy.

And the amazing story of pre-US Navy ship timekeeping focuses on that
famous pre-Beatle Brit by the name of John Harrison. His chronometers
were as big a revolution for navigation in the 1700s as GPS is for us
today.


(...although his 'Pi'-based musical scale theory has been slow in
catching on!
http://www.lucytune.com/academic/manuscript_search.html)


~ CT

From Scott Kozel:
(Stuf4) wrote:
From Scott Kozel:
(Stuf4) wrote:
From Scott Kozel:
The Soviets also considered ICBMs to be long-range artillery.

Accurate ICBMs and SLBMs existed by the thousands, on both sides of the
Iron Curtain, long before GPS ever existed.

I don't see how those facts refute anything I've stated.

GPS is not "offensive space-based weaponry", and for you to assert that
it is, shows you have an agenda to post disinformation about the topic.

If you're concerned with disinformation, you might want to be more
careful about the words you choose to put quotes around, because that
isn't what I said.

What I put in quotes, is a paraphrase of what you were asserting.

Your paraphrase completely altered the meaning of what I said.

And if you don't see how GPS was funded for its offensive capability,
I suggest that you review the plethora of information in the links
provided in this thread alone.

Given that you have not posted one single jot about the USSR's offensive
ballistic missile systems that the U.S. was trying to defend against
during the Cold War, nor about the USSR's "hunter killer" sattelites
which actually -were- an offensive spaced-based weapon, I have to
question everything that you have posted and wonder why you are digging
down so deep to construct your anti-U.S. rants, and complaining about a
communication system.

Please check what you've just said with the following:

- GPS is not a communication system.

- The US gave up on trying to _defend against_ Soviet ICBMs.

- I'm well aware of Soviet offensive weapons (to include space station
armament).

- Criticism of the US government does not necessarily make someone
"anti-U.S."

Do you think that the military developed GPS for *defense*? They are
in the business of killing people. They use technology to kill people
more efficiently. The justification for funding multiples of billions
of dollars for GPS fits right in with that.

GPS is incapable of killing a single person.

We are agreed that GPS is not a weapon.

GPS was not funded so that you can have a moving map in your car for
your daily commute to work.

"Originally designated the NAVSTAR (Navigation System with Timing And
Ranging) Global Positioning System, GPS was developed by the US
Department of Defense to provide all-weather round-the-clock navigation
capabilities for military ground, sea, and air forces. Since its
implementation, GPS has also become an integral asset in numerous
civilian applications and industries around the globe, including
recreational uses (e.g. boating, aircraft, hiking), corporate vehicle
fleet tracking, and surveying".

http://leonardo.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/Programs/gps.html

That is consistent with everything I have been saying. It was
developed to provide military capability. Today we use it for
boating, hiking, OnStar and such.



One point you might want to check against here is the meaning of the
acronym NavSTAR. This is from the official source (it doesn't get any
more official than the NavSTAR GPS JPO):

NavSTAR - Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging

(https://gps.losangeles.af.mil/gpslibrary/Acronyms.asp#n)


~ CT

From Scott Kozel:
Sander Vesik wrote:

Scott M. Kozel wrote:
Sander Vesik wrote:
Scott M. Kozel wrote:

GPS is not "offensive space-based weaponry", and for you to assert that
it is, shows you have an agenda to post disinformation about the topic.

Fine. And I doubt many people would argue against that. But surely you
don't want to claim that specificly military tailored and military
controlled navigation satellites used in weapons targeting are part
not of space militarisation?

I just got done refuting that notion. GPS has many civil uses, and is
no more "space militarisation" than is things like computers,
calculators, and microelectronics that makes modern satellites feasible,
plus weather satellites and other communication satellites.

This is simply nonsense. When was the last time you saw a receiver on
sale that could actually make use of all GPS? GPS is not in any way
comparable to computers or modern electronics. It is not even designed
for civilian use, you may as well claim military cargo planes are not
military aircraft at all.

You're the one who is posting nonsense. Obviously you've never seen the
commercially available receivers that instantly provide the exact
coordinates of a location to within a few feet. That has valuable civil
navigational uses.

I totally agree that GPS has many civil uses. You can say the same
thing about the internet. But that does nothing to change the history
of the origins of either system stemming from nuclear warfare.

Here is a fact that:

"it is commonly known that civil users outnumber military users by 100
to 1 and the ratio is increasing".

Along with internet use, the civil/military user ratio for interstate
highways is way up there too. But the fact remains that the funding
for many infrastrucure elements that we take for granted today came as
a direct result of nuclear warfare strategy.

Accurate ICBMs and SLBMs existed by the thousands, on both sides of the
Iron Curtain, decades before GPS ever existed.

Which is utterly irrelevant to whetever GPS is space militarisation
or not.

It is totally relevant, since those ICBMs and SLBMs can be (and were)
very accurate without GPS.

Inertial navigation systems are (and were) notoriously lacking in
reliability. This translates to a lack of reliable accuracy in the
nuclear triad (bombers being far more susceptible than ICBMs to INS
inaccuracies since acceleration errors build over time). And this
translates to a decrease in deterrent effect.

GPS was essentially funded as a force multiplier that helped tip the
balance of power in the favor of the US.

You're just looking for any far-fetched excuse possible to attack the
U.S.

I don't speak for Sander, but I hope you don't see my efforts as an
_attack_ against the US. As I've stated elsewhere, offering criticism
toward the US does not necessarily make someone anti-US.

Every country has its faults. Patriotic nationalism can have a
negative effect of *hiding* those faults (note that Nazi is a
contraction of a German word for nationalist).

My definition of patriot includes working to identify and fix critical
faults.


~ CT

(Stuf4) wrote:

From Scott Kozel:
(Stuf4) wrote:
From Scott Kozel:
(Stuf4) wrote:
From Scott Kozel:
The Soviets also considered ICBMs to be long-range artillery.

Accurate ICBMs and SLBMs existed by the thousands, on both sides of the
Iron Curtain, long before GPS ever existed.

I don't see how those facts refute anything I've stated.

GPS is not "offensive space-based weaponry", and for you to assert that
it is, shows you have an agenda to post disinformation about the topic.

If you're concerned with disinformation, you might want to be more
careful about the words you choose to put quotes around, because that
isn't what I said.

What I put in quotes, is a paraphrase of what you were asserting.

Your paraphrase completely altered the meaning of what I said.

And if you don't see how GPS was funded for its offensive capability,
I suggest that you review the plethora of information in the links
provided in this thread alone.

Given that you have not posted one single jot about the USSR's offensive
ballistic missile systems that the U.S. was trying to defend against
during the Cold War, nor about the USSR's "hunter killer" sattelites
which actually -were- an offensive spaced-based weapon, I have to
question everything that you have posted and wonder why you are digging
down so deep to construct your anti-U.S. rants, and complaining about a
communication system.

Please check what you've just said with the following:

- GPS is not a communication system.

It functions fundamentally by receiving and transmitting radio waves,
and that makes it a communication system.

- The US gave up on trying to _defend against_ Soviet ICBMs.

The technology to directly do that didn't exist when GPS started in
1978, so the U.S.'s prime defense against Soviet ICBMs/SLBMs was to have
a survivable second-strike capability, so that the Soviets would know
that they couldn't launch a first strike that would prevent devastating
retaliation from the U.S.

- I'm well aware of Soviet offensive weapons (to include space station
armament).

It's nice that you finally acknowledged that.

GPS is incapable of killing a single person.

Or damaging other satellites.

We are agreed that GPS is not a weapon.

GPS is not a weapon, and it is not an "offensive" system either, since
it is unlikely to have been built with military functions, if not for
the decades-long threat of conquest of the U.S. by the USSR; so
conceptually any military function of GPS was -defensive- in nature.
For that matter, the U.S. is unlikely to have deployed ICBMs and SLBMs
if not for the fact that the USSR was doing so and aiming them at the
U.S. and NATO.