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You got that right! When I was in engineering management in the USAF we were buying the GPS manpack from Rockwell Collins and infantryman was assign to carry it and spare batteries, You turned it on got your fix and turned it off because the battery only lasted four hours. I think the infantryman carried the unit and two spare batteries… probably 50 lbs of gear. The antennae was huge 2/3 of a baseball bat at least

At that time sporting stores started selling cigarette pack sized GPS units. the manpack was about to go GA. I said to stop production and just buy the commercial version, Rockwell got incensed say the manpack was MilSPEC. I said if a war came every grunt would go buy one and put it in a ziplock bag to protect it, rather than sacrifice a fighting man to haul the GPS. I was a junior officer but I prevailed. And thank God, because that was right before the first Gulf War.

My brother was an army Medivac squadron commander, and asked me to get GPS for his squadron. I couldn’t get them officially but we got them from a boating store. That unit had no altitude… but it was way better than flying in a desert without GPS.

Milspec for Electronics is really a problem, the tech moves to fast for the qualification process. Give commercial tech to a good non-com and he will protect it with a ziplock or panty hose (for sandy environments with things that need air…) or whatever. A smart non-com is a great improvisor.

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