At the moment, the US can withdraw GPS capability at a whim. This means that if the US and EU interests differ in a certain region, the EU will not have GPS capability. This is clearly unacceptable.

Even if there is never a direct confrontation with the US and even if we assume that we will alsways share the same geopolitical goals (not true even today) we need to take into account the emergence of new Superpowers (China and Russia) that may eventually surpass the US at the economic and consequently the military level. Therefore we cannot rely on the US for strategic defensive projects and need to maintain independent capability.

If we do not, as Europeans, establish strong military capabilities we will be drawn into the game of superpowers when a new cold war emerges.

True enough the project is late but think about it. It faced a major restructuring 1.5 year ago (officially the current galileo project was launched in July 2008 - OH MY 6 MONTHS INTO IT ALREADY WE ARE SO LATE!!!) and now we have to deal with the recession. At its current form it is planned to be completed in 2013 and I do not think 5 years is all that bad.

Of course the writer of the article, who practically wanted to just compose a polemic for the gullible, did not even bother to mention that the Chinese allready have a navigation system (geostationary - for defensive military purposes) and that they requested to enter Gallileo for commercial purposes. Then they decided to expand their own system for commercial purposes and left Gallileo.

The strong objections of various US sources of power towards Galileo should give you a good idea about why such articles are written (And how they are possibly funded)

As for 'robbing the CAF' ... well...lol....where do you come from mate? Mars? Our farmers here are more well fed that our cattle! About time they are robbed a bit...


In brief: Late or not, expensive or not we need it. Even if the Yanks do not want us to have it