US navy returns to celestial navigation amid fears of computer hack
US navy returns to celestial navigation amid fears of
computer hack
US Navy recruits to learn how to navigate using the stars
as America grows increasingly worried about possible hacking of computer
navigation systems
By Harriet Alexander, New York 3:29PM BST 14 Oct 2015
It was how Odysseus sailed the seas, how Columbus reached
the Americas, and how Lawrence of Arabia found his way across the vast,
featureless deserts of the Middle East.
For millennia, travellers used the stars to guide them on
their journeys – a technique which, in recent decades, has been replaced by
modern technology.
But now the US navy is reinstating classes on celestial
navigation for all new recruits, teaching the use of sextants – instruments
made of mirrors used to calculate angles and plot directions – because of
rising concerns that computers used to chart courses could be hacked or
malfunction.
“We went away from celestial navigation because computers
are great,” said Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Rogers, the deputy chairman of the naval
academy's Department of Seamanship and Navigation. "The problem is there's
no backup."
The era of celestial navigation ended with the launch of
satellites in the 1990s, which evolved into the Global Positioning System
(GPS). While celestial navigation can calculate your position within 1.5 miles,
by 1995 GPS could pinpoint your location within feet, and the system has never
been shut down.
Today, 31 satellites circle the Earth, each twice a day,
costing American taxpayers about $1 billion a year.
"The perceived need for sextants was taken
away," said Peter Trogdon, president of nautical instrument company Weems
& Plath in Eastport, Maryland.
Mr Trogdon, said sales of sextants plunged after the
arrival of GPS. "There's only a few thousand sold a year," he said.
"Most of those are sold to yachtsmen who want to have a backup."
A sextant instrument for sea navigation
“If you can use GPS, it's just so much more
accurate," said Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Rogers. But, he added, "we know there
are cyber vulnerabilities."
Recruits to the academy in Annapolis, Maryland, have this
autumn seen study of the stars return to their curriculum for the first time
since it was dropped in 2006. It was reinstated for navigators in 2011, but not
for the whole navy. Pilot programmes are also beginning for army reservists in
Philadelphia, Rochester and Auburn.
"Knowledge of celestial navigation in the GPS era
provides a solid backup form of navigation in the event GPS becomes unreliable
for whatever reason," said Captain Timothy Tisch, of the US Merchant
Marine Academy – which has never abandoned celestial navigation.
"It is also good professional practice to use one
navigational system to verify the accuracy of another."
The first midshipmen to receive training were juniors
this summer. From autumn next year, all newly enlisted sailors will have to
study the stars and learn theories of celestial navigation during an advanced
navigation course. The Class of 2017 will be the first to graduate with the
reinstated instruction.
“This is the first semester we added it in, so we're just
baby-stepping it,” said Lt. Christine Hirsch, who teaches navigation at the
academy. Only three hours will be taught. “We just added the theory, but we
really do have the capabilities to expand.”
Mr Trogdon said the decision was “fantastic”.
"How cool is it to go back to the ancestral
technique?"
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