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Formulating a National Policy Regarding the Global Positioning System

In 1995, at the request of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, RAND studied the issues surrounding the 24-satellite Global Positioning System (GPS). Though operated by the U.S. Air Force and essential to military operations, GPS had become a worldwide information resource for everything from air traffic control to the Internet. Balancing potentially conflicting interests related to defense, commercial, and foreign policy objectives, RAND made detailed policy recommendations designed to strengthen national security while promoting the adoption of GPS as a global standard for position location, navigation, and timing. RAND's recommendations formed the basis for a new national policy announced in 1996 by U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The national policy was updated and expanded in 2004 into a broader U.S. policy on space-based positioning, navigation, and timing; the new policy preserved the key elements of the RAND recommendations. This study helped advance U.S. leadership on this increasingly vital system and was a decisive influence in ensuring that it remain widely available for civil and commercial use worldwide.