[geeks] GPS on planes

[Shannon]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2003 at 10:47:58AM -0500, Brian Dunbar wrote:

> > The Navy recently cut celestial navigation from its required courses.
> > It was in our local papers a couple of years back.
> 
> > It used to be required for officers.
> 
> > No more sextants at Annapolis?
> 
> I stand corrected.  I'm also glad I don't have to ride around in Navy ships
> for a living, anymore.  I'm still convinced that land nav is taught to
> grunts, but I'm less convinced than I used to be.

A recent Discovery Channel story about US Marines shows them still
getting land navigation training. Obviously they can't show everything
in a half-hour documentary, but it seemed to me that every other
training program covered some aspect of navigation.

Lot's of military around here, but I've been out of touch.

I would like to ask some locals about the navigation program in
the Navy, to find out exactly what the deal is. It is my hope that
navigation is at least still offered, if not mandatory, or maybe that it
is required for certain positions.

An Air Force pilot told me they still do traditional navigation, and
pilots still have to pass non-electronic navigation courses. I would
imagine that its just about impossible to not teach that to combat
pilots.

> I hate to be a grumpy old man (crimminy I'm only 35) but we used to be an
> article of faith that anything more complicated than a rifle was going to
> break, fail or in some manner let you down when you needed it most.

I've thought about that a lot.

When I worked in downtown Norfolk, I could see them bring the USS
Yorktown "smart ship" back into port, after having its onboard Windows
systems fail on trials.

Have you seen the new guns for the grunts? They can even fire around
corners... the gun has various cameras and sensors, so they can fire
blindly, using a HUD projected on in front of their eyes.

The whole smart-soldier thing is supposed to make our military more
effective, but I hope the gun will still fire if the batteries go
dead...

-- 
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