Will the military benefit from Galileo?

[airborne_artist]

Good to read that yet another public IT programme is going to cost the taxpayer even more cash now that the Eu is now going ahead without any commercial partners. Cost is estimated at $4.59-$4.86 billion.

So, is there any key benefit to the Eu military over the existing US DoD system?

[Top Right]

AA,

That depends on which Member State you are in the EU.

[Wader2]

So, is there any key benefit to the Eu military over the existing US DoD system?

Yes, once road pricing has paid for the system itmay reduce pressure on the military budget.

Will it work OTOH?

[Heimdall]

Sadly certain elements of the EU, particularly the French, are determined to press ahead with this unnesessary system. However, what could have saved the EU taxpayers from the massive Galileo bill was the 'public/private' partnership arrangement that required a considerable investment from private companies before the project could be given the go ahead - the idea was that their investment would be recovered by fees levied on companies and private individuals who make use of Galileo. Unsurprisingly, these companies did their homework and realised that there was little lilehood of anyone paying for Galileo, when GPS is available for free. I think this was obvious to anyone with half a brain cell from the outset, apart from the EU of course. It just shows how desperate these people are when they decide to press ahead regardless of the fact that their original financial plan has just been sunk below the waterline.

But that's not the end of it. They also want an EU spy satellite system called Eurosat that will probably end up costing just as much.
www.spyflight.co.uk/eurosat.htm

About the only thing you can guarantee about the EU is that they will continue to try and find new and exciting ways to try and waste UK taxpayers money.

Heimdall

[A2QFI]

"The Galileo network will differ from GPS, not only in the fact that it will be a civilian-run service but also in that it will offer performance guarantees."

It may offer performance guarantees but will they be met and what will the price of failure be? I think we should be told! Best Guess = price of failure will be met by UK tax payers while people go blind, suffer Alzheimers and don't get cancer drugs!

[tablet_eraser]

There are several streams of data from Galileo, one of which (stream 5, IIRC) is encrypted for military use. The problem is that the algorithms for the encryption method are already up for sale to China; this is one of the many reasons I think Galileo represents the EU shooting itself in the foot. Not only is it going into direct competition with the long-established and industry-standard GPS, but it's also thumbing its nose at the US by enabling China to develop a Cruise capability. Even the Russians won't sell military-standard GLONASS algorithms to China, for God's sake.

The UK would do well to steer clear of this. We have preferential access to GPS M-code already; why involve ourselves with this orbital white elephant? It's going to be costly, ineffective, and expensive to run. Another colossal waste of European money.

[themightyimp]

@tablet_eraser (http://www.pprune.org/forums/member.php?u=104630)

I couldn't agree more; you forget one fact though.....

Our MPs are toothless; the EU (anyone vote for that? Does it have a basis in law? Was its constitution approved? - Nada) runs this country not the House of Commons.