President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global-positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.
Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration official who spoke to a few reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity.
The GPS system, consisting of more than two dozen satellites, is vital to commercial aviation and marine shipping.
The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S. navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The European Union is developing a $4.8 billion program, called Galileo.
The military increasingly uses GPS technology to move troops across large areas and direct bombs and missiles. Any government-ordered shutdown or jamming of the GPS satellites would be done in ways to limit disruptions to navigation and related systems outside the affected area, the White House said.
The directives to the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department were part of a space policy that Bush signed this month. Part of the new policy is classified; other parts were disclosed Wednesday.
