Galileo & GPS

President George W. Bush has accepted a recommendation to end procurement of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites that have the capability to intentionally degrade the accuracy of civil signals, the White House press secretary said in a statement September 18. Although the United States stopped the intentional degradation of GPS satellite signals in May 2000, this new action will result in the removal of "Selective Availability" capabilities, thereby eliminating a source of uncertainty in GPS performance that has been of concern to civil GPS users worldwide. This decision reflects the United States strong commitment to users of GPS that this free global utility can be counted on to support peaceful civil activities around the world, the statement said.

The United States and the European Union announced July 26 an agreement for a common GPS-Galileo signal -- called MBOC -- for civilian use. In the future, this will allow receivers to track the GPS and/or Galileo signals with higher accuracy, even in challenging environments. The agreement to jointly use MBOC on these interoperable civil signals demonstrates the close U.S.-EU cooperation since 2004 to ensure that GPS and Galileo are compatible and interoperable at the user level.

2007: President Bush Decides to End U.S. Capability to Degrade GPS Signals (Sep 18, 2007) | U.S., EU Announce Final Design for Common GPS-Galileo Civil Signal (Jul 26, 2007) | U.S., EU Release Handout on Cooperation on GPS-Galileo Compatibility and Other Joint Efforts in the Field of Space-Based Navigation (Mar 2007)

2006: Joint Statement on Signal Optimization (Mar 24, 2006) | United States Updates Global Positioning System Technology (Feb 3, 2006)

2005: U.S., EU Cooperate on Science and Technology (Feb 22, 2005)

Secretary of State Colin Powell hailed the U.S.-EU agreement on Global Positioning System (GPS)-Galileo cooperation as a "remarkable achievement" at a signing ceremony June 26, 2004, in Shannon, Ireland, during the U.S.-EU Summit. The U.S. GPS system consists of satellites broadcasting signals that can be converted into precise positioning and timing information anywhere in the world. In 1998 the European Union decided to develop its own satellite navigation system, which it called "Galileo." The new agreement, Powell said, "manages to balance the competition that is inherent in the commercial dimension of satellite navigational technology with the cooperation necessary for the security dimension." Powell also noted that combined GPS-Galileo capabilities will open up "major opportunities for scientific research and creative engineering, enabling new applications, applications that we haven't even begun to think of yet, and also for the development of new technologies."

2004: Powell Hails U.S.-EU Agreement on GPS-Galileo Cooperation (Jun 29, 2004) | U.S., EU Reach Agreement on Satellite Navigation Services (June 27, 2004) | U.S., EU to Sign Landmark GPS-Galileo Agreement  (June 24, 2004) | U.S.-EU Joint Statement on GPS/Galileo Cooperation (February 27, 2004) | Remarks by Braibanti, Hilbrecht on GPS/Galileo Agreement (February 27, 2004) | U.S., EU Optimistic About Satellite Navigation Agreement (February 19, 2004) | U.S., EU Working on Global Positioning Systems Agreement (January 8, 2004) | U.S. Global Positioning System and European Galileo System  (January 8, 2004)

2002: Media Note Explains U.S. Position on GPS-Galileo (March 7, 2002) | U.S. Officials Cite Concerns about Planned European Satellite System (March 4, 2002)