| Sam Wormley 2008-02-09, 10:33 am |
| LORAN Saved, but Money Questions Remain
http://uc.gpsworld.com/gpsuc/conten...p.jsp?id=490245
Feb 8, 2008
GPS World
Everything old is eventually new again \u2014 that could be said of
LORAN. Or perhaps, like clothing styles, proponents of LORAN just had
to wait long enough, and it became fashionable again.
Or perhaps a metaphor using cinema pugilist Rocky Balboa \u2014 or
even the actor that portrays him, Sylvester Stallone, for that matter
\u2014 would be apt; just when you think LORAN is down for the count,
it gets back up again. In fact, it has been given $34.5 million in
President Bush's proposed federal budget for fiscal 2009, and made
part of the provenance of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The U.S. Coast Guard, which has overseen the domestic LORAN program
for years and years - and is part of DHS - would still
administer the program.
The Long Range Aid to Navigation (LORAN) system (originally LRN for
Loomis Radio Navigation, after it inventor, Alfred Lee Loomis) has
been around for decades, with roots that go back to World War II and
that era's naval warfare. Simply put, it is a terrestrial,
radio-based navigation system that uses the time intervals between
the reception of signals to triangulate a user's position. The
venerable system has modern value: the greater capabilities of the
new enhanced Loran (eLoran) make it a much-needed independent,
redundant backup to GPS, and one less susceptible to interference
than GPS is. Read Sally Basker's and Len Jacobson's editorials on
this topic on the GPS World Website.
It could be said to have fallen out of favor in recent years, with
the advent of GPS and related satellite navigation technologies, and
the more accurate positioning that satellite technologies provide.
Even the Coast Guard has looked in recent years to shed LORAN, or at
least remove the responsibility for funding it from its own dedicated
budget.
Now it looks as if LORAN will remain as a complementary system and
backup to GPS, something its proponents have suggested for some years
now. Language in the proposed federal budget stated that the
administration of the LORAN-C program will migrate to the National
Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) of the Department of
Homeland Security in preparation for conversion of LORAN-C operations
to eLORAN, as well.
Where's the Rest of the Money Coming From?
But despite that language and decrees from LORAN proponents that the
system has been rescued from oblivion, that $34.5 million is
essentially a stopgap measure.
"Today the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will begin
implementing an independent national positioning, navigation and
timing system that complements GPS in the event of an outage or
disruption in service," the department stated Thursday.
"The enhanced LORAN, or eLORAN, system will be a land-based,
independent system and will mitigate any safety, security, or
economic effects of a GPS outage or disruption. GPS is a
satellite-based system widely used for positioning, navigation, and
timing. The eLORAN system will be an enhanced and modernized version
of LORAN-C, long used by mariners and aviators and originally
developed for civil marine use in coastal areas," the DHS statement
continued.
"In addition to providing backup coverage, the signal strength and
penetration capability of eLORAN will provide support to first
responders and other operators in environments that GPS cannot
support, such as under heavy foliage, in some underground areas, and
in dense high-rise structures. The system will use modernized
transmitting stations and an upgraded network."
That's all well and good, but the funding for eLORAN going forward is
still an open question; $34.5 million hardly covers the annual
operating costs of the system as it exists today. As the Coast Guard
budget position statement issued this week puts it, that fiscal 2009
budget request "reflects transfer of LORAN-C operations to NPPD,
however the Coast Guard will continue operation of the system in 2009
on a reimbursable basis."
The actual upgrade from LORAN-C to a full-fledged eLORAN system costs
considerably more. It involves adding another data channel to the
LORAN system as well as enhanced infrastructure, such as high-powered
transmitters and new timing equipment at LORAN stations; there are 24
scattered across the United States and its territories.
While that upgrade has begun, the eLORAN upgrade is far from complete
- only 19 of the U.S. LORAN stations have been upgraded so far,
for one thing - and its funding has been in limbo, as no new
money has been allocated in the federal budget for the Coast Guard's
upgrade plan since fiscal 2006. But completing the eLORAN upgrade
could cost as much as an additional $400 million, according to Coast
Guard figures.
Where DHS will come up with that money remains to be seen.
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