According to the Capital Gazette, the class that teaches midshipmen how to chart their position based on the sun, moon and stars, is making a comeback in light of the threat natural events and cyberattacks could pose for modern navigation systems.
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“We went away from celestial navigation because computers are great”, said Lt. Cmdr. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a security force that guards high-ranking Russian officials, for instance, reverted to using typewriters after revelations about US digital spying capabilities.
“The problem is”, he explained, “there’s no backup”.
But now, the Navy’s suddenly realized it doesn’t have a plan B for maritime navigation in case computers and satellites get hacked.
Midshipmen at the Naval Academy started receiving a three-hour instruction program this summer. And officials are now rebuilding the program for enlisted ranks; it’s expected to begin next fall. “New lieutenants, they don’t have that instruction”.
The Naval Academy stopped teaching celestial navigation in the late 1990s, deeming the hard-to-learn skill irrelevant in an era when satellites can relay a ship’s location with remarkable ease and precision. Since then there’s been no backup plan, and in case of a computer breach, all those most-advanced-super-duper cruisers and aircraft carriers could have become just pieces of metal floating adrift in the middle of nowhere with no one onboard who knows how to navigate using stars.
After nearly twenty years, the US Navy has reintroduced celestial navigation lessons to the Naval Academy.
The government’s GPS system can help sailors lost at sea find their way to shore, or identify ship routes to within feet, Lt. Cmdr.
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Celestial navigation was a part of the Naval Academy’s educational curriculum for decades, but the school mostly removed it from class schedules in 2006 as Global Positioning System replaced more antiquated technologies, such as the sextant – a mirror-made navigational devices used by explorers for centuries leading up to the cyber age. Ryan Rogers of the academy’s Department of Seamanship and Navigation tells Maryland’s Capital Gazette.
