This is old news, but lately it's getting a lot more press.

The Global Positioning System is aging and expected to begin failing soon, maybe starting as early as 2010. There are accusations that the $2 billion modernization of the satellites is being mismanaged by the Air Force, and "the estimated long-term probability of maintaining a constellation of at least 24 operational satellites falls below 95% during fiscal year 2010 and remains below 95% until the end of fiscal year 2014, at times falling to about 80%."

"Fewer GPS satellites could also make it more difficult to receive a location fix in areas with a poor view of the sky, such as the downtown 'canyons' of major cities. Coverage inside buildings could also suffer."

"The GPS can operate with fewer than 24 satellites, though with potentially reduced precision."

Reduced precision? Add that to the "reduced precision" of the cache hider and start logging those DNFs.

I certainly hope they get their act together. In recent years we have seen increased emphasis on GPS driven flights including GPS departures and GPS approaches and GPS landings. The possibility of degradation of GPS based aids to flight is of major concern. Yes, the old ground based instrumentation remains in place but having all the extra stuff sure adds to the safety buffer. ( Redundancy is a GOOOOOD THING )

Today the Air Force disputed the GAO report of pending GPS failure. Read about it here.

And now there are solar flares to worry about!

Raytheon was awarded a $886 million contract to improve GPS capabilities. I hope it's ready by tomorrow! (It won't be.)

UGH THE GOVERNMENT IS ABOUT AS SLOW AS DIALUP INTERNET. AND SAME PRICE. EXPENCIVE!!!. they sould let me do it, ill slam it together in 24H tops, with a few billion in repair bills ill do anything to increase my accuracy, now their making ME less accurate!!! AYE CHINGARA