Allow Me to Present Ambassador GPS

The positioning, navigation, and timing accuracy that the Global Positioning System provides means that the US military can take out enemy targets more quickly and with fewer munitions, said Lt. Gen. Michael Basla, Air Force Space Command vice commander, on Friday. However, from a strategic perspective, GPS’ real value is that it limits the potential for collateral damage, he told the audience in his address at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. “Building and sustaining fragile coalitions across cultural lines of demarcation is hard enough, but the inadvertent deaths of non-combatants can do immeasurable damage,” said Basla. He added, “Precision munitions enable a greater degree of trust, a key ingredient when building coalitions.” Enemy disruption of the GPS signal would mean the United States would have to compensate for the loss of weapons accuracy by using a greater number of munitions to ensure the mission objective, “raising the probability of collateral damage and losses of non-combatant lives,” he said.