THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release May 1, 2000
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT REGARDING THE UNITED STATES' DECISION
TO STOP DEGRADING GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM ACCURACY
Today, I am pleased to announce that the United States will stop the
intentional degradation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) signals available to the
public beginning at midnight tonight. We call this degradation feature Selective
Availability (SA). This will mean that civilian users of GPS will be able to pinpoint
locations up to ten times more accurately than they do now. GPS is a dual-use,
satellite-based system that provides accurate location and timing data to users worldwide.
My March 1996 Presidential Decision Directive included in the goals for GPS to:
"encourage acceptance and integration of GPS into peaceful civil, commercial and
scientific applications worldwide; and to encourage private sector investment in and use
of U.S. GPS technologies and services." To meet these goals, I committed the U.S. to
discontinuing the use of SA by 2006 with an annual assessment of its continued use
beginning this year.
The decision to discontinue SA is the latest measure in an on-going effort
to make GPS more responsive to civil and commercial users worldwide. Last year, Vice
President Gore announced our plans to modernize GPS by adding two new civilian signals to
enhance the civil and commercial service. This initiative is on-track and the budget
further advances modernization by incorporating some of the new features on up to 18
additional satellites that are already awaiting launch or are in production. We will
continue to provide all of these capabilities to worldwide users free of charge.
My decision to discontinue SA was based upon a recommendation by the
Secretary of Defense in coordination with the Departments of State, Transportation,
Commerce, the Director of Central Intelligence, and other Executive Branch Departments and
Agencies. They realized that worldwide transportation safety, scientific, and commercial
interests could best be served by discontinuation of SA. Along with our commitment to
enhance GPS for peaceful applications, my administration is committed to preserving fully
the military utility of GPS. The decision to discontinue SA is coupled with our continuing
efforts to upgrade the military utility of our systems that use GPS, and is supported by
threat assessments which conclude that setting SA to zero at this time would have minimal
impact on national security. Additionally, we have demonstrated the capability to
selectively deny GPS signals on a regional basis when our national security is threatened.
This regional approach to denying navigation services is consistent with the 1996 plan to
discontinue the degradation of civil and commercial GPS service globally through the SA
technique.
Originally developed by the Department of Defense as a military system,
GPS has become a global utility. It benefits users around the world in many different
applications, including air, road, marine, and rail navigation, telecommunications,
emergency response, oil exploration, mining, and many more. Civilian users will realize a
dramatic improvement in GPS accuracy with the discontinuation of SA. For example,
emergency teams responding to a cry for help can now determine what side of the highway
they must respond to, thereby saving precious minutes. This increase in accuracy will
allow new GPS applications to emerge and continue to enhance the lives of people around
the world.
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