T&T: Loran vs. West Marine

[Bob Peterson]

When the operational and administrative costs to run the Loran-C program
were transferred fully to the Coast Guard, they tried to get funding for its
continuation and were denied.  So they planned to shut down the system since
Congress and the Administration would not support a budget request for it.
Then the fun came!  All sorts of groups showed up out of the woodwork
describing the impending doom if Loran were to be shut down.  So the Coast
Guard was not allowed to shut it down and given only a token budget amount
for one year to let it limp along.

They have been trying to shut it down ever since.  The costs to run it are
taken out of the CG budget, not the USAF, not the DOT, not the DHS.  The
personnel costs to man the remote stations and run the stations are from the
Coast Guard budget.  Despite what we may think about the desirability of an
independent "back up" system, the Coast Guard doesn't fit Loran receivers in
their cutters and small boats.  So since they don't use it, and it is a
significant unfunded budgetary hole they must live with, you can expect to
see a long line of CG proposals to discontinue Loran.  After all, they
reason, if it is REALLY needed, surely someone would support it in terms of
a budget item. 

This is a clear-cut example of the "do we need a traffic signal on that
corner" scenario.  The Coast Guard is waiting for the Chinese to shoot down
some of our GPS satellites <VBG>, to satisfy one popular defense of Loran
spending often cited.  But that hasn't happened yet.  Actually the more
plausible scenario, advanced by Urban Legend, would be terrorists blowing up
one of the several GPS ground control stations, and in so doing, wipe out
the effective use of a dozen or so satellites.  

The Coast Guard is now delivering their budget proposals to DHS and Congress
with numerous bright red self-sticky arrows pointing to Loran funding items,
in the hope that the White House and OMB staffers who refuse to permit the
CG to pull the plug on Loran will, once and for all, remove any Loran budget
item from the Federal budget.  Then, when they shut it off, they can direct
complaints to the White House.

Bob Peterson
"Lopaka Nane"
47' Lien Hwa CPMY
San Francisco

-----Original Message-----
From: trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of
Ralph J. Malozzi
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2007 4:03 PM
To: Trawlers-samurai
Subject: Re: T&T: Loran vs. West Marine

With the Chinese government's demonstrated capability to destroy satellites
and our all encompassing (over?) dependence on GPS, it would seem prudent to
maintain a ground based backup system such as LORAN, but then the Fed Gov
knows that...........right?....right?

 Ralph Malozzi
New Bern, NC