Yes, I understand that precise and reliable global navigation is essential to fighting wars and guided weapons, but such uses pale in comparison to the billions of people who rely on GPS every day to do non-war, non-USA stuff. It is neither national nor security.
Or do they just mean “in the role of defense contractor”?
Keeping track of the boats and missiles pays the bills. Everything else is just a happy accident of zero marginal use cost.
Doing war stuff with GPS does not generate any revenue. It costs American citizens the same amount of dollars regardless of whether it is used for war or not.
It’s not national, and it’s not security.
At this point I just assume you are trolling.
The cheapest Iridium phone service plan is $50/month for just 10 minutes of talk time. Would you pay $50/month for 10 minutes of GPS navigation a month?
Navstar-GPS works fine though, so there must be some other reason.
Possibilities: military use, jobs program, pride, etc.
The GPS system cost ~$12 billion to make, and needs ~$750 million a year in maintenance (mainly launching new stats as they have a service life of 15 years). This means it costs each US taxpayer $5/year to run. Quite a few road/subway projects cost more than the GPS system.
Also it is very much “national” as the US taxpayer pays for the GPS system billions of people use for their non-war, non-USA stuff. And it’s definitely security because if that GPS system were to go down, there’s be a serious and immediate economic effect. Protecting and improving GPS is every bit “national security” as building a tank. National security is more than just waging war; it’s the promotion of stability both political and economic across the world.