The European Commission announced that discussion with the Americans regarding the Galileo project are going well but that two issues must be solved before an agreement can be reached. First, coexistence of Galileo’s commercial signal and the GPS military encrypted signal must be possible in an emergency situation.
The Europeans made several concessions and suggested modifying the signal modulation for Galileo to avoid interference with NATO and U.S. military signals. Nevertheless, the European Commission is still committed to develop the best civil and commercial positioning system possible.
The second problem is related to the joint system needed between the Europeans and the Americans. This system must be flexible to maximize the capacity of Galileo and GPS to adapt to new technologies and users requests. The United States has national security concerns when it comes to this matter.
However, the Europeans will not allow their partner to decide for them on the frequencies to be used. Although resistant to the project at the very beginning, the United States has since adopted a more positive attitude toward the project. Discussions regarding these issues should take place the end of January.
Source: France in Space
