Europe GPS Plan Shelved
BERLIN -- Exasperated European officials say U.S. pressure appears to have torpedoed
a $3 billion
project to build a European version of the U.S. global positioning system, which uses
signals from orbiting
satellites to track geographical position within 36 meters.
The proposed system, dubbed Galileo, was intended to give Europeans more autonomy,
both industrially
and militarily. That's no small concern, since the United States can selectively block
access to GPS, as
it has during the military campaign in Afghanistan.
Also, European plans to develop a rapid-reaction military force will become much more
credible with their
own GPS in military operations.
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