An eastern Iowa-based high-tech company is rolling out a new gadget that will help the military more accurately pinpoint any spot on the globe. Hikers, hunters, fishermen and even scuba divers have used G-P-S technology for years. It triangularizes a location using global positioning satellites. Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids has developed a new type of G-P-S that’s only being sold to the military.
Rockwell spokesman Doug Wagner says civilian versions of G-P-S are accurate to within a few meters, but his company’s new military version can map locations down to centimeter accuracy. Wagner says smaller increments of measurement can provide much more accurate maps.
Wagner couldn’t say what the military-level devices are selling for, but the Department of Defense has ordered 100-thousand of them. He says they’re handheld, very portable and are only about the size of a couple of checkbooks.
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