US, Europe deadlock over satellite navigation

WASHINGTON - United States and European negotiators have failed to break a deadlock over technical standards for Europe's planned multibillion-dollar Galileo satellite navigation system, both sides said on Monday.

The US has offered to share its satellite know-how if the Europeans agree to a radio frequency it says would curb potential interference with what it deems a critical, coded military signal.

Some Europeans contend the US-backed plan would undercut Galileo's accuracy in the name of defending allied security while in fact boosting US business interests.

"We agree it would be good that we both use the same frequency," Anthony Gooch, a spokesman in Washington for the European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of the 15-nation European Union said.

But in three days of talks that wound up on Friday, the commission stuck to its preferred option -- known as Binary Offset Carrier or BOC (1.5, 1.5) -- rather than the US choice known as BOC 1.1, Gooch said.

"And we hope the US will see the merits of adopting 1.5" for the civilian signal on its own next generation of Global Positioning System satellites, he said.

Contrary to the US view, the Europeans believe their preferred signal structure, or modulation, would protect coded military signals while boosting Galileo's performance, Gooch said.

A US government official, on the other hand, said the US had sought to show the 1.5 signal would degrade US and Nato capability to jam an enemy's use of GPS signals. At issue is the "M Code," which can shut enemies out while preserving allied access.

Still, the US is optimistic a deal may be reached within the next couple of months, a US State Department participant in the talks said.

Both the US and the EU want Galileo and GPS -- a dual-use system to support civil and military users -- to mesh as seamlessly as possible for the benefit of users, manufacturers and service providers.

Any harmonisation pact could uncork vast private-sector investments in the so-called Open Service of Europe's planned 30-satellite Galileo system, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2008.

Richard McKinney, the US Air Force's deputy director for space acquisition, said last month there was no qualitative difference between the two modulations at issue.

But the European-preferred 1.5 signal was 50 per cent more likely to interfere with the "M Code," he said.

US policy is to provide civil GPS signals worldwide free of direct user fees. The EC forecasts that Galileo would spin off more than 100,000 jobs and generate service and equipment contracts worth up to 9 billion euros ($16.8 billion) a year, making it the continent's most lucrative infrastructure project.

- REUTERS