GPS World, March 2018

4 GPS WORLD WWW GPSWORLD COM MARCH 2018 WWW GPSWORLD COM EDITORIAL Editor in Chief Group Publisher Alan Cameron editor@ gpsworld com 541 984 5312 Editorial Director Marty Whitford mwhitford@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3766 Managing Editor Tracy Cozzens tcozzens@ northcoastmedia net 541 255 3334 Digital Media Manager Joelle Harms jharms@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3780 Digital Editor Allison Barwacz abarwacz@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3796 Art Director Charles Park CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Innovation Richard Langley lang@ unb ca Defense PNT Michael Jones mjones@ gpsworld com European GNSS Tim Reynolds treynolds@ gpsworld com Professional OEM UAV Tony Murfin GeoIntelligence William Tewelow wtewelow@ gpsworld com Survey Tim Burch and Dave Zilkoski tburch@ gpsworld com and dzilkoski@ gpsworld com BUSINESS ACCOUNT MANAGER Mike Joyce mjoyce@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3723 ACCOUNT MANAGER Ryan Gerard rgerard@ northcoastmedia net 216 363 7921 ACCOUNT MANAGER Joe Sabau jsabau@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3772 DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT Bethany Chambers bchambers@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3771 SR MARKETING EVENT MANAGER Michelle Mitchell mmitchell@ northcoastmedia net 216 363 7922 MARKETING EVENT MANAGER Angela Gibian agibian@ northcoastmedia net 216 363 7936 PUBLISHING SERVICES Manager Production Services Chris Anderson canderson@ northcoastmedia net 216 978 5341 Senior Audience Development Manager Antoinette Sanchez Perkins asanchez perkins@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3750 Reprints Permissions Brett Petillo bpetillo@ wrightsmedia com 877 652 5295 Circulation Subscriber Services gpsworld@ omeda com USA 847 513 6030 NORTH COAST MEDIA LLC 1360 East 9th St Suite 1070 Cleveland OH 44114 USA President CEO Kevin Stoltman kstoltman@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3740 Vice President of Finance Operations Steve Galperin sgalperin@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3705 Editorial Directors Marisa Palmieri mpalmieri@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3764 Marty Whitford mwhitford@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3766 VP Graphic Design Production Pete Seltzer pseltzer@ northcoastmedia net 216 706 3737 MANUSCRIPTS GPS World welcomes unsolicited articles but cannot be held responsible for their safekeeping or return Send to 1360 East 9th St Suite 1070 IMG Center Cleveland OH 44114 USA Every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy but publishers cannot accept responsibility for the accuracy of information supplied herein or for any opinion expressed REPRINTS Reprints of all articles are available 500 minimum Contact 877 652 5295 Nick Iademarco Wrights Media 2407 Timberloch Place The Woodlands TX 77380 SUBSCRIBER SERVICES To subscribe change your address and all other services e mail gpsworld@ omeda com or call 847 513 6030 LIST RENTAL Contact 800 529 9020 Brahm Schenkman bschenkman@ inforefinery com The Information Refinery Inc PERMISSIONS Contact 877 652 5295 Nick Iademarco Wrights Media 2407 Timberloch Place The Woodlands TX 77380 INTERNATIONAL LICENSING E mail gpsworld@ gpsworld com ACCOUNTING OFFICE AND OFFICE OF PUBLICATION 1360 East 9th St Suite 1070 IMG Center Cleveland OH 44114 USA GPS WORLD does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the advertisements contained in the publication and cannot take any responsibility for any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content Published monthly OUT IN FRONT Money Doesnt Buy Progress BY Alan Cameron EDITOR IN CHIEF W hile it sounded like good news at first once the real results were plucked from the slurry they resemble nothing so much as the same old uncertainties About the future of GPS III I mean Additional money allocated by Congress to the Department of Defense budget 80 billion on top of 549 billion for FY18 and 85 billion added to the 562 billion previously set for FY19 alleviated longstanding worries about sufficient funding for GPS The satnav system has always been at the mercy of raiding by other military programs over budget and cashstrapped At least that pressure will be off we thought But money on paper does not always lead expeditiously or at all to boots on the ground or birds in the sky The funds come with an enthusiasm for reorganizing everything To streamline it effectivize it make it more businesslike In the case of the Space and Missile Defense Command this means eliminating three top level decisionmaking positions and designating someone other than the secretary of the Air Force as responsible for space budget prioritization Congress stopped short of its initial idea which was to establish a whole new department for military space activities separate from and equal to the Air Force But theres no doubt that the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act strongly rebukes the current way of doing space things in the Pentagon and the Air Force while proffering more money to do them Like many announced initiatives to drain the swamp elsewhere this one has just drawn in more murky water It may take four or five years according to some with Pentagon insight to figure out new procedures lines of command and the actual fulcrums of decision making In the meantime matters will you guessed it slow down All this as the GPS III launch schedule and OCX next generation groundcontrol readiness slide rightward and military GPS user equipment can count on at least a decade to even partially update Mind you Increment I of the new M code cards is not yet complete Once it is the three major contractors who have developed them will compete to sell their varying versions to the different branches of the military the different arms of those branches and the different weapon systems 716 by GAOs count operated by those arms The pursuit of increased resilience in space clearly destined to be a contested domain in the event of large scale international conflict may actually inhibit itself in the near term As noted below the previous wielder of this space has relinquished satnav matters to take up as he says some unfinished business with life I owe him a great debt He gave me my start here Glen Gibbons Retires Glen Gibbons announced his retirement from active leadership of Inside GNSS magazine at the end of last year when he wrote he was promoting myself to Editor Emeritus Gibbons was editor of GPS World from 1989 to 2005 and editor and publisher of Inside GNSS from 2006 through 2017 In 2003 he received the U S Institute of Navigations Norman P Hays Award for inspiration and support contributing to the advancement of navigation GPS World joins all those around the industry and the international GNSS community in recognizing and thanking him for his many years of coverage of and service to the field of positioning navigation and timing