(Rio de Janeiro) At the recent ICAO CNS/ATM implementation conference held here, the FAA dropped a bombshell by announcing, contrary to all earlier assurances, that the Global Positioning System (GPS) would not be approved for sole-use navigation, and would always need a backup system. The reason given was that the possibilities of jamming, solar events, etc, were now better understood. Excellent though GPS may be, its problem is that it is so low-powered that the signal can easily be blotted out or disrupted - as demonstrated at last year's Moscow Air Show where a jammer destoyed the signal over a radius of 200km, and in recent U.S. DoD exercises. The notion of GPS as a sole means of navigation is dead, even with the WAAS and LAAS backup systems. The FAA advises that suitable backup systems are triple-inertial, VOR, and LORAN-C systems. The FAA also advises that the USA will not undertake to keep GPS active, nor will the USA ever assume any liability for use of GPS by civil aviation.
Source: Interavia Volume 53 No 623
The above news release has serious implications for flight training operations.