News from Global Online: American Seedmagazine reported on 14 October, 2006 that European Committee has disapproved to use ‘Galileo’ navigation system with military purposes in the future and declared a discussion on the application of navigation satellite project.
The spokesman insisted that the project must be used under civilian control. It is also expressed that debates on its application and potential usufruct would continue. Owe to the fact that it is all known by the public that the positioning signals are being used by the military, the debate is inevitable. “Galileo” project is initiated with no any military purposes originally, which is different to the US GPS system. GPS is developed in purpose of military use, but is broadly used in commerce.
“Galileo” project has been funded 4.8 billion USD (i.e. 3.8 euro) so far, which urges the EU to seek financial cooperation with other countries. The Committee is to make a contract with companies which can run this system for at least 20 years by the end of 2006.