EU’s Barrot Eyes Military Use for Satellite System
Freitag, Oktober 13th, 2006v class="story-para">The European Union should consider employing its Galileo satellite navigation program for military uses in addition to the civilian purposes for which it was designed, the EU’s transport chief said on Oct. 12.
“Galileo was supposed to be a civilian system only but I wonder whether we shouldn’t question that,” Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot told a conference in Luxembourg.
“Using it for military purposes, for defense purposes … would be very interesting in terms of paying for the infrastructure and the investment,” he said of the multi-billion-euro project.
The program, which will eventually have some 30 satellites orbiting the earth, challenges the United States’ dominant navigation system, the Global Positioning System (GPS).
It was originally scheduled to be operational by 2008, though that may be delayed.
Barrot said some EU states opposed using the system for military means because of potential U.S. opposition, but he said he did not think Washington would object to such a move.
