GPS helps win the Gulf War

[harmonica]

..GPS greatly helped in PG1...the Iraqis thought no one could navigate in the desert --so they didn't defend in the desert wasteland--yet the LRDG navigated much, much further distances in WW2!
..we received very crude GPS hand held systems in the USMC in 1990, the year I got out of the USMC....I hardly remember it because I only handled it once or twice..now, most everyone has it!

Another challenge involved a key component of the U.S.’s ground strategy—moving infantry and artillery into even less hospitable areas of the desert in order to outflank and encircle Iraqi forces. GPS would be crucial to helping ground troops “navigate through terrain that the Iraqis weren’t bothering to defend because they didn’t think anyone could find their way through there,

GPS and the World's First "Space War"

Mohammed’s critical mistake centered around his assumptions about his enemy and what was possible. He assumed that the American forces would have to travel via the road, and oriented his tanks and other weaponry in that direction. He based that assumption on the idea that U.S. forces could not navigate across the desert with its indiscernible geographic conditions, apparently unaware of the new GPS technology that McMaster’s tanks and Bradleys were outfitted with.

As A Young Captain, McMaster Commanded One Of The Most Epic Tank Battles In History

 

[whitehall]

I admit that I had a problem with the Marine Corps night compass marches where you had to find certain check points in the jungle and change direction but It doesn't take a rocket scientist to use a compass to navigate across a desert. Americans were victorious in Iraq because we had leadership from the White House and leadership on the ground.

 

[harmonica]

I admit that I had a problem with the Marine Corps night compass marches where you had to find certain check points in the jungle and change direction but It doesn't take a rocket scientist to use a compass to navigate across a desert. Americans were victorious in Iraq because we had leadership from the White House and leadership on the ground.

.I did the same courses ......but the LRDG went greater distances and got where they were going....
..now that I think about it, considering how we dominated in PG1 and Israel kicked Arab a$$ many times , I'm now not surprised that they didn't know how to navigate then

 

[Picaro]

..GPS greatly helped in PG1...the Iraqis thought no one could navigate in the desert --so they didn't defend in the desert wasteland--yet the LRDG navigated much, much further distances in WW2!
..we received very crude GPS hand held systems in the USMC in 1990, the year I got out of the USMC....I hardly remember it because I only handled it once or twice..now, most everyone has it!

Another challenge involved a key component of the U.S.’s ground strategy—moving infantry and artillery into even less hospitable areas of the desert in order to outflank and encircle Iraqi forces. GPS would be crucial to helping ground troops “navigate through terrain that the Iraqis weren’t bothering to defend because they didn’t think anyone could find their way through there,

GPS and the World's First "Space War"

Mohammed’s critical mistake centered around his assumptions about his enemy and what was possible. He assumed that the American forces would have to travel via the road, and oriented his tanks and other weaponry in that direction. He based that assumption on the idea that U.S. forces could not navigate across the desert with its indiscernible geographic conditions, apparently unaware of the new GPS technology that McMaster’s tanks and Bradleys were outfitted with.

As A Young Captain, McMaster Commanded One Of The Most Epic Tank Battles In History

Early GPS systems had to rely on old copper wired telephone line and power line grids and towers for their mapping reference points base. Me, and many others, spent the 1980's traveling in all sorts of countries setting up beacons along those lines in all sorts of terrain, and in hostile areas to boot. Even by 2010 Google Maps was inserting fake maps to make their 'global' coverage look 'complete' with no holes in their 'world map'. Maybe they fixed it all now, but I doubt it. North Africa and the ME was a piece of cake to map, compared to someplace like Burma or Laos.

 

[Dick Foster]

..GPS greatly helped in PG1...the Iraqis thought no one could navigate in the desert --so they didn't defend in the desert wasteland--yet the LRDG navigated much, much further distances in WW2!
..we received very crude GPS hand held systems in the USMC in 1990, the year I got out of the USMC....I hardly remember it because I only handled it once or twice..now, most everyone has it!

Another challenge involved a key component of the U.S.’s ground strategy—moving infantry and artillery into even less hospitable areas of the desert in order to outflank and encircle Iraqi forces. GPS would be crucial to helping ground troops “navigate through terrain that the Iraqis weren’t bothering to defend because they didn’t think anyone could find their way through there,

GPS and the World's First "Space War"

Mohammed’s critical mistake centered around his assumptions about his enemy and what was possible. He assumed that the American forces would have to travel via the road, and oriented his tanks and other weaponry in that direction. He based that assumption on the idea that U.S. forces could not navigate across the desert with its indiscernible geographic conditions, apparently unaware of the new GPS technology that McMaster’s tanks and Bradleys were outfitted with.

As A Young Captain, McMaster Commanded One Of The Most Epic Tank Battles In History

The launch of the GPS constellation was actually held up by the shuttle disaster. Then they tried using some old Atlas boosters I think which tended to explode on the pad or otherwise fail to launch where upon the program was shoved on to the back burner. That was until the Gulf war when they got out into that featureless desert and couldn't navigate with a squat. All of a sudden the military started buying anything that said GPS on it even commercial gear and GPS all of a sudden gained in priority. Even the terrain guided cruse missiles headed to Iraq had to take the long way around because the desert offered no terrain with which to navigate.

As an original member of the DMA, defence mapping agency, I was a small part of satellite navigation development from it's very earliest days in the early 1970s. I knew then what it would become and it has since developed beyond my then wildest speculations.

 

[Dick Foster]

..GPS greatly helped in PG1...the Iraqis thought no one could navigate in the desert --so they didn't defend in the desert wasteland--yet the LRDG navigated much, much further distances in WW2!
..we received very crude GPS hand held systems in the USMC in 1990, the year I got out of the USMC....I hardly remember it because I only handled it once or twice..now, most everyone has it!

Another challenge involved a key component of the U.S.’s ground strategy—moving infantry and artillery into even less hospitable areas of the desert in order to outflank and encircle Iraqi forces. GPS would be crucial to helping ground troops “navigate through terrain that the Iraqis weren’t bothering to defend because they didn’t think anyone could find their way through there,

GPS and the World's First "Space War"

Mohammed’s critical mistake centered around his assumptions about his enemy and what was possible. He assumed that the American forces would have to travel via the road, and oriented his tanks and other weaponry in that direction. He based that assumption on the idea that U.S. forces could not navigate across the desert with its indiscernible geographic conditions, apparently unaware of the new GPS technology that McMaster’s tanks and Bradleys were outfitted with.

As A Young Captain, McMaster Commanded One Of The Most Epic Tank Battles In History

Early GPS systems had to rely on old copper wired telephone line and power line grids and towers for their mapping reference points base. Me, and many others, spent the 1980's traveling in all sorts of countries setting up beacons along those lines in all sorts of terrain, and in hostile areas to boot. Even by 2010 Google Maps was inserting fake maps to make their 'global' coverage look 'complete' with no holes in their 'world map'. Maybe they fixed it all now, but I doubt it. North Africa and the ME was a piece of cake to map, compared to someplace like Burma or Laos.

I think you must be confused with some other system. While there are indeed insertion stations to keep the GPS clocks (rubidium beams) and ephemeral data accurate those are few and relatively far between. Diego Garcia is one, another is Asention Island and a few others including Kaiena Point, HI and some in CONUS. The system is actually run by pimple faced young airmen of the US Air Force in Denver CO.

If you need a detailed explanation of how it works let me know.

BTW I also contributed to WGS 84, (world geodetic system) the gravity model upon which GPS is based and I moved Guam about a mile in the process.