Europe and the USA have started discussions to ensure Europe's Galileo global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is interoperable with the US global positioning system (GPS).
In February, the European Commission (EC) announced plans to develop Galileo as an open, global satellite navigation system independent from the GPS. Although the USA has not welcomed Europe's plans to develop an independent satellite navigation system, it is keen to ensure Galileo is fully compatible and interoperable with GPS.
US Department of Transportation officials met their UK and German counterparts this month to discuss interoperability and meetings with France and Italy are planned.
"We are not sure why you [the European Union] need to go forward with a separate system, but if you wish to do so we are suggesting open system architecture so that the systems are complementary," says DoT deputy assistant for transportation policy Joseph Canny.
If the Galileo programme goes ahead, says Canny, interoperability is not so much a matter of sharing frequencies, but of co-operating on time base and signal structure.
In addition to discussing interoperability, Canny is in Europe "to make some key governments aware of the US programme of [GPS] maintenance and modernisation and of its full commercial possibilities". The USA is committed to maintain and extend GPS accuracy and integrity, says Canny.
The GPS satellites that will provide the third civil frequency, known as L5, will "begin to be launched in 2005-and we are trying to advance the schedule", says Canny.
By 2010, he says, 18 new satellites will be broadcasting the L5 signal, which will have more power and a higher data rate, making it more accurate and less easy to jam than the existing signals.
Source: Flight International
