Global positioning for all.

The White House announced last week that civilians will be given access to extremely precise navigational information from military satellites sometime in the next 10 years.

"With a device the size of a calculator, more and more people will be able to use [the Global Positioning System (GPS)] to pinpoint their precise location-whether they're hiking across the Rockies or sailing across the Chesapeake Bay. Install this technology in the dashboard of a car, and drivers can figure out the quickest route to their destination," Vice President Al Gore said at a press conference.

The policy statement maps out a plan for free worldwide use of the GPS, a constellation of 24 Air Force satellites circling the globe. With GPS, U.S. military forces can locate their position to within 8 meters instantly.

Scientists, airline companies, and other civilians currently receive an uncoded, but degraded, signal from the GPS satellites; this practice, in theory, limits accuracy to 100 m.

The Department of Defense corrupts the signal for national security purposes.

The GPS could help enemy ground forces, ships, and aircraft navigate through war zones and could improve the accuracy of hostile missiles. But in a recent study commissioned by the White House, the RAND corporation of Santa Monica, Calif., noted that commercial firms have developed ways of improving the accuracy of the degraded GPS data to within a few meters, rendering this security measure less effective.

According to the new policy, the military will stop corrupting the GPS signal available to civilians in 4 to 10 years. Instead, the Defense Department will develop new ways of jamming enemy interception of GPS data.

The Clinton administration contends that free worldwide access to the positioning system will stimulate an already rapidly growing commercial market for GPS equipment, which is expected to reach annual sales of $8.5 billion by 2000.