UK Proposes Massive Coast Guard Cuts

A leaked plan from the UK Department for Transport proposes the reduction of Coast Guard facilities from 19 to 8, only 3 of which would operate 24/7.

The new full-time maritime centers would be at Aberdeen, Southampton/Portsmouth, and Dover. Five sub-centers would be open in daylight hours only, at Swansea, Humber, Falmouth, Belfast or Liverpool, and Stornoway or Shetland.

One immediate issue of contention is that this plan leaves only one Coast Guard base in Wales.

In addition, the transport secretary continues with plans to privatize the search and rescue operation. The Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, and Coast Guard's "aging" Sea King helicopters would be replaced with a SAR system supplied by a private contractor.

The effects of all this on Coast Guard radio are not yet known, since nothing is as yet definite.

Shouldn't We Have Had This Discussion Before We Defunded eLORAN?

BBC News:

Sat-nav systems under increasing threat from 'jammers'

By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Technology that depends on satellite-navigation signals is increasingly threatened by attack from widely available equipment, experts say.

...

A UK meeting outlining the risks was held at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington on Tuesday.

The approach still costs in the thousands and is the preserve of what Professor Last calls the "real techies", but he guessed that the tools could be in the hands of criminals within a year or two.

...

Some at the conference suggested the relative security of the eLoran ground-based system that is already in place, but which existing consumer devices do not pick up.

Actually, such devices had been designed, and were ready for market once this system was ready for them. Of course, now there will never be such a system in the USA. Much of our civilization, from navigation to timekeeping, is now completely dependent on one very good, but very vulnerable, single system.