Military tensions under Europe-US agreement
Loyola de Palacio, European Commission vice-president in charge of Transport and Energy, comments: "This agreement will allow all users to use in a complementary way both systems with the same receiver: it creates indeed the world standard of radio-navigation by satellite. I'm happy to see that we agreed not to freeze the performance of signal modulations: on the contrary it establishes clear rules for both parties to jointly or individually continuously improve the performance of their respective systems, for the benefit of all users world-wide."
The negotiations resulted in adoption of a common baseline signal structure for the respective open services. The future GPS intends to use a binary offset carrier (BOC) (1,1) signal whereas the Galileo open service intends to use a fully compatible optimised version of the same signal that guarantees a high-level of performance. Interoperable time and geodesy standards were confirmed with a view to facilitating joint use of GPS and Galileo.
The associated documents will be jointly finalised before being presented for signature. Conclusion of a formal agreement is expected in the coming weeks. A few issues remain outstanding, primarily concerning legal and procedural aspects.
Progress to date on the GALILEO navigational satellite programme includes ordering of the first two experimental satellites, a co-operation agreement with China (October 2003) and the procedure for designating the future concession holder for the system. China is investing more than EUR200mn in GALILEO. Other countries interested in the project include Russia, Israel and India.
The European Commission launched the project in March 2002 with the European Space Agency (ESA) contributing to a development phase extending from 2002 to 2005. After further phases of deployment in the period 2006 to 2008, operation is due from 2008. A new generation of universal services in sectors such as transport, telecoms, agriculture or fisheries are to be developed based on the technology.
The first two experimental satellites were ordered in July 2003. They will be emitting signals from space by the summer of 2006 using frequencies allocated by the World Radiocommunications conference held in 2003.
The US GPS and the Russian GLONASS satellite systems use similar technology but are financed and controlled by military authorities. The GALILEO programme, however, will be administered and controlled by civilians and intends to offer guarantees of quality and continuity.
Some of the conflict between Europe and the US concerned the GALILEO public regulated system (PRS) a secure, precise signal for use only by government agencies. The US did not want this to overlay its own M-Code military signal. In the event of a big conflict, the Pentagon wants to be able to jam other signals, including GALILEO, without interfering with M-Code. The intention is that the USA and its allies will be able to use global navigation technology for positioning and missile guidance, while denying access to enemies.
The EU has now agreed to modify some of its frequency modulations and use of the US’s BOC (1,1) signal structure rather than the previously intended (1,5). Some say this is a small difference, while others believe that the US was fearful of GALILEO gaining a competitive edge on GPS. The US proposed to the EU that it would adopt the BOC (1,1) structure itself when it modernises GPS, a system that has been operating since 1973.
