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by Arjuna 2222 days ago
The speed limit in the US is 1000mph, else it’s a munition.

Please note: my apologies in advance for a comment that may be perceived as pedantic, but I just wanted to further illuminate this statement.

The U.S. regulation, which technically falls under the Export Administration Regulations (Navigation and Avionics), does not exclusively regulate GPS navigation in munitions applications; rather, it serves to regulate any airborne application where the GPS receiver is capable of resolving navigation telemetry at speeds in excess of 600 m/s. This equates to approximately 1,968.5 ft/s, or 1,342.16 MPH.

Given the speed limitation parameter of the aforementioned regulation, this regulation would not only apply to GPS receivers in munitions applications, but it would also apply to GPS receivers that are utilized in fighter aircraft, space vehicles, etc.

1 comments

According to Google, the F22 can do 1500 mph. Looks like civillian GPS is still good as long as you keep it under Mach 1.8 at sea level ;)

ICBMs on the other hand, reportedly go ten times the speed of an F22.

Is is really for missiles. Same reason the ITAR limits for accelerometers and gyros are relatively high (I think like 10g for acceleration). Same again for vibration tolerance. It is a barrier to entry for making a navigation system for missiles.
Neither of which would be using a civilian GPS receiver?
Well, not now they wouldn't.

I fail to see what is so hard to believe that an actor _could_ use civilian parts to get military capabilities. Yes, sure the are points about performance and reliability and what not but I can't shake the feeling that at least some of those points are exaggerated or marketing speak and the re is obviously a point where these components are good enough to be dangerous.