U.S. Military GPS Satellites Vital to Economy, Daily Life, Precision Agriculture
Tom Roeder of The Gazette reports: If airmen in Colorado Springs failed in their job of running the Global Positioning System for just one day, the American economy would lose $1 billion, a new think tank report estimates.
The report from RTI International seeks to answer a question the Air Force has been asking for decades: What is the true economic impact of the military navigation and timing system that’s found nearly universal utility in the civilian world. Even without calculating the use of GPS in the financial sector where its timing signal is used every time a debit card is swiped or a stock traded, the study concludes that the military satellites have pumped nearly $1.4 trillion into the economy since 1984.
Not bad for a system that is slated to cost taxpayers about $1.8 billion in 2020.
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