Via theregister.co.uk -
Galileo, the planned European sat-nav system, has been acknowledged as having a military role by the European Commission.
EC Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said yesterday that Galileo will be "civilian controlled...but there will be military users".
Under original plans, Galileo was to be more than half funded by private industry, but the EC's corporate partners have effectively declined to proceed due to fears over revenue. The US defense department's Global Positioning System (GPS) offers a good service for free, and private sector bosses doubted that users would pay for Galileo services even if they were somewhat enhanced.
As a result, the EC has been pushing for an extra €2bn of taxpayers' money in order to build the system itself. Many observers, including El Reg, have suggested that government funding for Galileo only makes sense in the context of European military action and infrastructure security, independent of the US.
This analysis has been lent support. The Financial Times reports that an EC paper for transport ministers says that no Galileo "would mean that the EU would be dependent on military/dual use foreign systems and technologies".
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