’cause we don’t ever need a backup

The US Coast Guard shut down all but 5 of the LORAN-C stations on Monday. Not that they were used much since the constellation of GPS satellites was finally finished, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a backup if the GPS system is damaged or fails?

Defunded in it’s entirety by Mr Obama in October of ’09, in order to save $190 million (yep, just a drop in the bucket compared to his spending so far….).

The fact is, that while it might not be used much, LORAN-C would have provided a backup for long range navigation of air travel and ship navigation, and would have given the US a reliable backup navigation in and around the continental US that was effectively bulletproof, unlike the constellation of GPS satellites, which are easily struck by ASAT weapons.

Obsolete? Sure. Redundant? Yes. But it wouldn’t take much money to keep the system operating, and it sure would have made for a nice backup to the GPS system.

Bush considered killing the system, but chose not to, in order that the country would have a redundant system to GPS. Not so Mr. Obama. Expect the rest of the world to follow the lead of the US.

Perhaps his intent is to weaken this country slowly, incrementally.

Then again, “never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence”

It’s nice that we now have no real backup for our pilots and ships to use, if and when.