INTELLIGENCE
                       No. 269, 24 July 1995
                        (Vol. 16, No. 15)

                      Publishing since 1980

Copyright ADI 1995. Reproduction in any form forbidden without explicit
authorization from the ADI. A one-year subscription (23 issues) is US $280.

U.S.A.

GPS BATTLE ON SELECTIVE AVAILABILITY  & "WORM HOLES"


     Just as the U.S. military's Arpanet computer network
served as the basis of the worldwide Internet which now
overwhelms its tiny parent (IN, N. 262/10), so the U.S.
military's Global Positioning System (GPS) is already being
dwarfed by commercial uses expected to grow annually by 38
percent and reach $11 billion by 2000.  Also because civilian
specialists have developed differential GPS systems to nullify
the selective availability (S/A)  -- less accurate -- security
feature imposed on non-Pentagon users, a recent joint U.S.
National Research Council-National Academy of Public
Administration study recommends turning off the S/A feature and
making GPS available free of direct charges to all users.  The
Pentagon had already labeled this idea "premature" on 31 May
before the report was even published.

     COMMENT  -  In commercial terms, degrading the civilian
signal serves no purpose because of differential GPS
capabilities and only "promotes uncertainty among potential
international U.S. commercial users," according to the report.
Moreover, the Pentagon's security concerns were recently
revealed to be largely unfounded by ... the Pentagon itself.
In early April, experiments on signal jamming of GPS began and
in mid-June, the Pentagon concluded its smart bombs and cruise
missiles -- and therefore those of other nations -- were
vulnerable to GPS jamming and also GPS "worm holes" in the
atmosphere where GPS signals disappear.  According to the
Pentagon, its weapons can overcome these problems but it will
make them more expensive.  What the Pentagon didn't say is that
jamming would be a very effective counter-measure against enemy
GPS-guided weapons.

     Therefore, U.S. national security doesn't really seem to
be a valid argument for retaining S/A GPS.  Moreover,
specialists have told "Intelligence" that S/A GPS is actually
an American security liability since the Pentagon turns off the
S/A feature to allow only pure military-accuracy GPS in a
region just before an American invasion, as during the U.S.
invasion of Haiti last year.  So if you've got an accurate GPS
signal, "the Marines are coming."

                            *

     CANADA - No Airport Security & New Bombings.  The Royal
Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) "Mounties" are being kept on the
run by budget cuts and new bombers.  Five small airports in
northern Manitoba will eliminate security screening of
passengers and baggage effective 1 August 1995 under new money-
saving guidelines.  At the same time, the Mounties have had to
admit they know nothing about the Anti-Fascist Militia which
recently mailed four parcel bombs from Vancouver to various
points across Canada.

                                  *

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