U.S. President George W. Bush on Dec. 8 authorized a new national policy that establishes guidance and implementation actions for space-based positioning, navigation and timing programs, augmentations and activities for U.S. national and homeland security, civil, scientific and commercial purposes.

“The widespread and growing dependence on the Global Positioning System of military, civil and commercial systems and infrastructures has made many of these systems inherently vulnerable to an unexpected interruption in positioning, navigation and/or timing services,” the Administration said in a Dec. 15 fact sheet. “The United States must continue to improve and maintain the Global Positioning System, and backup capabilities to meet growing national, homeland and economic security requirements, for civil requirements and to meet commercial and scientific demands.”

The United States GPS Industry Council (USGIC) said Dec. 15 that it welcomes the announcement of a new Positioning, Navigation and Timing Policy. According to the council, the policy sets forth a forward-looking framework for the management of GPS and its augmentations. The policy maintains an unambiguous U.S. commitment to the essential principles of open access, free of direct user fees, for civilian users worldwide.

“GPS continues to be a model success story as a result of careful policy decisions such as this announcement,” said Charles Trimble, USGIC chairman, in a prepared statement. “The real significance is that users worldwide can be confident that GPS will continue to grow and evolve to meet their needs as a global information utility.”

In other GPS news, The U.S. and Russia intend to begin preliminary discussions on an agreement for cooperation between the U.S. GPS satellite navigation system and the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS).

In a statement released by the U.S. State Department Dec. 14, spokesman Richard Boucher said “The United States and the Russian Federation intend to cooperate, as appropriate, on matters of mutual interest related to civil satellite-based navigation and timing signals and systems, value added services, and global navigation and timing goods in relevant international organizations and fora. In particular, both sides intend to work together to the maximum extent practicable to maintain radio frequency compatibility in spectrum use between each other’s satellite-based navigation and timing signals.”