THE COMMISSIONERS of Irish Lights say they still support the idea of an alternative navigation system to satellite, in spite of the decision by the US coastguard to shut down its Loran-C network.
Loran-C, a terrestrial navigation system which was the focus of a row over the siting of a mast on Clare’s Loop Head some years ago, was declared “obsolete” last year by US president Barack Obama.
President Obama said that the ground-based network was no longer needed in an age when Global Positioning System (GPS) devices were practically ubiquitous in ships, planes and cars.
However, the US-run GPS system is vulnerable to deliberate or inadvertent interruption, as experienced among car drivers here during the recent cold spell – and as experienced two years ago in California, when a US navy training exercise jammed GPS signals and interrupted mobile phone services for up to 10 miles inland.
"We would still be very worried about the vulnerability of GPS at sea," Commissioners of Irish Lights head of marine, Capt Kieran O'Higgins, told The Irish Times.
The Irish lighthouse authority supports development of an enhanced form of Loran, known as e-Loran, as part of moves towards an independent European communications network.
The EU has been working on a satellite network, named Galileo, that would complement the existing US-led GPS, and satellite systems run by Russia (Glonass), India and China. Galileo has a target date of 2013.
However, e-Loran has been recommended by experts, including the US “father of GPS”, Bradford Parkinson, as a critical back-up for safety and security reasons.
“We don’t want to be totally reliant on satellites, which are subject to error, and e-Loran is a very capable system,” Capt O’Higgins said.
“It provides secure communications, secure navigation and secure charting.”
The Government spent €1 million on its support for the original Loran-C system, following an agreement signed in 1992 with Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and France to install it.
However, local opposition to the siting of a transmission mast on Loop Head in Co Clare, over concerns about health and the environment, led to a legislative challenge.
The issue went to the Supreme Court, which approved construction in 1998, and the Government agreed it would require special legislation.
However, three years later Norway and Germany withdrew from the international system and the plan for the Co Clare mast was abandoned.
The 219-metre (720ft) structure cost over €300,000 to store before it was returned to France.