Military GPS?

Silver Hilton · 12-24-2003, 08:23 AM

Newsweek has an article about what to buy for the soldier on active duty, which is about the upgrades or additions to standard military gear that can be had in the civilian market that soldiers might appreciate. One of the recommendations was a Garmin GPS, which was claimed to be easier to use than the military standard issue. I was wondering if anyone knew what military standard issue GPS is. Is it a standard gadget that is similar to civilian issue, or are there special military wubbies like targeting charts?

1pump · 12-24-2003, 08:32 AM

I've been told that the military issue GPS is more accurate than the civilian version, but other than that.......

Chromaflage · 12-24-2003, 08:52 AM

As I understand, and have been told by a couple people who seem to know GPS, that because of other technology that the military now uses, the accuracy of both are about equal any more. The gov't discontinued the use of DGPS some time ago, eliminating forced errors and inaccuracies. This also freed up a lot of data transfer for ground stations.

That's what I've heard, anyway.

ORS

TheRogue · 12-24-2003, 10:23 AM

The old military receiver was called the "Plugger"(PLGR), and the new one is a "Soldier" (I think). Big, bulky, and NOT user-friendly....pretty typical military!!

Since Selective Availability was turned off, there is really no practical difference between the military-code recievers and their civilian counterparts. The accuracy is quite similar...PLGR's can be better under canopy, but in Iraq, that's really not an issue. The biggest difference is that if SA is turned back on, everyone's Garmin will be back to +/- 300 feet, where the military ones will still be functioning as normal.

I think most military personnel would rather pack around a E-trex!!

TR

Silver Hilton · 12-24-2003, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TheRogue:
I think most military personnel would rather pack around a E-trex!!

TR

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">That was the point of the article. Apparently there are several things that the GI in the know can get that improve on standard issue. Another was lighter armor plates for the flak jacket that save about 5 lbs of weight. Just more examples of how technology doesn't stand still.

TheRogue · 12-24-2003, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Silver Hilton:
Just more examples of how technology doesn't stand still. [/QB]

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">But.....military procurement procedures do!!

TR