Civil Augmentation Systems Sustaining Military Operations

A. Muls, T. Willems

Abstract:	Military operations have changed fundamentally since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. No longer have western countries a well identified enemy with great destructive capacity and the electronics means to interfere with the electronic signals used for communications, detection or navigation. The Belgian military have gone through several restructuring operations and are evolving towards an army whose main task is to assist the United Nations in its peace-keeping operations. The lack of a well identified enemy, capable of disrupting the communication or navigation devices of the armed forces, and these new kind of operations open the possibility to introduce or use new technologies during these type of missions. Until recently, the navigation needs of military vectors, be it on the land, on the sea or in the air, have been fulfilled using specific military equipment. These navigation aids had to be resistant against possible disruption by voluntary interferences from the enemy. Also taking into account the shift in the main operational tasks of the Belgian military Forces, the use of civil operated navigation systems could be beneficial for the realisation of its targets. This paper tends to open a discussion on the use of civil SBAS systems, such as EGNOS, by military forces operating during peace-keeping operations as defined by the United Nations. After introducing the current situation and plans for upgrading the existing navigation infrastructure, the pros and cons of using a civil SBAS system by these troops will be outlined. The topics discussed tend to open a discussion and do not claim to be valid for all operations.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS/GNSS 2003) September 9 - 12, 2003 Oregon Convention Center Portland, OR
Pages:	1058 - 1062
Cite this article:	Muls, A., Willems, T., "Civil Augmentation Systems Sustaining Military Operations," Proceedings of the 16th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS/GNSS 2003), Portland, OR, September 2003, pp. 1058-1062.
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