From NextGov:
Congress and the geospatial industry are voicing opposition to President Obama’s proposal to kill a decades-old navigational system that could serve as a backup to the popular and prevalent GPS.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, [questioned] Homeland Security Department Secretary Janet Napolitano about the administration’s plan to cancel the enhanced Long Range Aid to Navigation system (eLoran) at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs [..]
A report completed in January by an independent assessment team chaired by Bradford Parkinson, considered the father of GPS, and not publicly released, concluded that eLoran was the only cost-effective back up to satellite-based GPS and it would deter threats to U.S. national and economic security by jamming signals.
The report, prepared for the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally funded research firm, and obtained by Nextgov, said top officials from the Defense Department, DHS and the Office of Management and Budget concluded after briefings in 2006 and 2007 that eLoran was “the only alternative [to GPS] meeting the technical requirements at a reasonable cost.”
