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WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Tuesday accepted the Pentagon's decision to stop buying Global Positioning System satellites that can intentionally degrade the accuracy of civil signals used for a myriad of purposes — from tracking aircraft to finding missing skiers.
In May 2000, President Clinton abandoned the practice of deliberately degrading the accuracy of civilian navigation signals, a technique known as "selective availability." This capability will no longer be present in the next generation of GPS satellites.
"While this action will not materially improve the performance of the system, it does reflect the United States' strong commitment to users by reinforcing that this global utility can be counted on to support peaceful civil applications around the globe," the Defense Department said in a statement.
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