US PRESIDENT George W Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the US government-owned network of global positioning satellites to prevent terrorists from using the technology during a national crisis, the White House said.

Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity.
The GPS system is vital to commercial aviation and marine shipping.

The President also instructed the US Defence Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the US navigational satellites and to similar systems such as the European Union's $US4.8 Galileo program, which is still under development.

The military increasingly uses GPS technology to move troops across large areas and direct bombs and missiles. Any government-ordered shutdown or jamming of the GPS satellites would be done in ways to limit disruptions to navigation and related systems outside the affected area, the White House said.

The Associated Press

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