GPS and Military Weapons

By Bill Harvey

FRS 142 Where’s Waldo?

Prof. Groth

The History of GPS

• GPS traces its origins to 1960. The Aerospace Corporation was founded to solve missile and space problems. They started working on Project 621, which came to be known as the GPS, replacing astro-navigation systems with satellite navigation systems. Astro-navigation systems need clear skies in order to track stars. Satellites use microwaves and a master clock to track and guide missiles.

The Roles of GPS

• GPS is used, both militarily and commercially, for several things.

• Commercially, GPS can be used to track and find airplanes, boats and cell phones for individuals calling 911, plus several other uses.

• In the military, GPS is used primarily in two areas, reconnaissance and firepower.

GPS in the Military

• GPS is all about one thing: location, location, location.

• Primarily, in the military, it is about the location of our enemy, and our own location.

• The are several roles of GPS in the military. It can be used to pinpoint targets and guide smart bombs and missiles to the enemy, which is more accurate than laser targeting. It can also be used to give the position of our own men, thus reducing deaths by friendly fire. You can put a GPS onto/into anything.

The Progression of Missile Targeting

• Missiles have been guided by several methods.

• The most modern have been radar, wire, laser and most recently GPS.

• The problem with radar was that countermeasures would home in to the missile’s antenna and destroy the source, thus making it ineffective.

The Progression of Missile Targeting cont’d.

• The problem with wire targeting is that a wire is attached to the missile. This means two things: if the wire breaks, then the missile never acquires its target. Two, the vehicle launching the missile must stay out in the open, which puts those operating it in danger.

• There are different problems with laser targeting. The first is that, with the earlier prototypes, a gunner needed to “paint” the target at all times, lest the missile go astray.

The Progression of Missile Targeting cont’d.

• In the later version, the program is fire-and-forget. Once sighted, the missile just needs to be launched and the on-board computer takes care of the rest. The problem is that laser targeting is ineffective in bad weather or with severe cloud cover.

• GPS is the new method of fire-and-forget. It is unable to be jammed and works under all weather conditions. Before it is fired, the on-board computer is loaded with the coordinates of the target and the surrounding terrain. This is so that the missile can follow the terrain in its approach, making it hard to spot and intercept with radar. Seemingly, the only problem is that, once loaded, the coordinates cannot be changed.

The Future in Weaponry and GPS

• There are several weapons that military forces from all over the world that will employ GPS.

• One of these is the XM982 Excalibur Artillery Round. This artillery round is GPS-assisted and primarily carries smart “bomblets.” These bomblets explode when they come into contact with metal or self-destruct if they do not hit anything within a few seconds.

XM982 Excalibur Artillery Roundwith smart Bomblets

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/future-weapons/weapons/zone1/excalibur.html

More Weapons

• Another weapon that will utilize GPS upon its military release is the Predator. The Predator is an unmanned aircraft that can be used to drop payloads over enemy territory or can be simply used for reconnaissance. The use of this weapon will save the lives of our troops that would otherwise be put at risk by flying over enemy airspace or scouting their camp.

The Predator

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/future-weapons/weapons/zone1/arsenal-2.html

The Mother of All Bombs

• Another future weapon is the MOAB (Massive Ordinance Air Blast). The MOAB is the largest conventional weapon employed by the United States (that is, non-nuclear). It delivers over nine tons of powerful explosives. Although guided with a GPS system, precision is not a key priority because of its 400-foot blast radius.

The Mother of All Bombs

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/future-weapons/weapons/zone1/arsenal-6.html

Works Cited

• http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/future-weapons/weapons/weapon-zone.html

• http://www.ausairpower.net/TE-GPS-Guided-Weps.html

• http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/writing/Samples/policy/mccollum.html