The Defense Department announced Tuesday that it would eliminate the selective availability feature on new Global Positioning System satellites. That decision coincides with the view expressed earlier this year by the National Space-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Advisory Board. The Pentagon stopped using the SA feature, which permitted satellite operators to intentionally degrade the GPS signal, in May 2000, but the advisory group believes that the continued inclusion of the SA feature generated international mistrust at a time when alternatives to GPS are emerging.
The Pentagon fulfilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's promise to slash the number of Religious Affiliation Codes used by the military to track the volume of members adhering to different religions and to shape the chaplain corps to support them. The change reduces the number of religions counted for such purposes…