In article . com,
says...

There is a new system in the works by the europeans, Galileo. It is
supposed to be independent of military control so you won't see threats
of system shutdown. I'm sure the pentagon is working out how to jam it,
etc.



Galileo has won some European funding approval this year, so it should move
forward to at least the next stage.It is a very clever initiative, because it
plays on the Europeans' pride (particularly the French) in not having to rely
on something developed and offered (even for free) from the Americans. If it
does come to pass, it will of course be offered at high cost to users (just as
IFR users are already heavily taxed on "airway use" fees) GPS receivers will
be mandated to be "Galileo compliant" (more market share for Europen equipment
manufacturers) and it will be geared toward commercial operations, offering
little of the flexibility and cost effectiveness required by private
operators. If Europeans could see past their pride, they should hope that
Galileo never gets past the next budget hurdles, and they should become
victims, once again of slavery to free, reliable, scalable US initiatives.

G Faris