GPS: The Versatile Tool for Range Instrumentation

Abstract

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has made significant contributions in range instrumentation. It was the prime tracking method for both realtime range safety and metric tracking for the Trident II. Because of its many advantages, GPS will become the primary source of time, space, and position information (TSPI) on the ranges. Many activities requiring precision TSPI have already committed to GPS and others are planning on the application of GPS in the future for use on the ranges. GPS is also an extremely accurate time source, with timing accuracies of 10 nanoseconds obtainable worldwide. The range interoperability problem is solvable through the use of GPS as the TSPI source. There is little doubt that GPS will become the standard TSPI source for all test and training ranges.