With the Global Positioning System (GPS) in every smart phone and known to every possible type of vehiclist – from an astronaut to a guy on a mountain bike out in the bundu – the need for navigators to be trained in celestial navigation seems an obsolete art.
It’s still a hot potato amongst both the progressives and the traditionalists in this debate.
But, according to the shipowners body Bimco, steering by the stars just got a vote of confidence – as the US Chief of Naval Operations has just intervened to reinstate celestial navigation (not been taught to US naval officers since 2006) into the USN core curriculum and require it to become an “Officer Professional Core Competence”.
Increasing concerns about cyber threats are said to be the reason that the sextant will be an important tool of the naval navigator in the future, even aboard warships crammed with every last electronic device. But the US navy also points out that cyber threats are not the only reason that electronic systems fail, with system degradation, electrical failures, satellite malfunctions and other reasons why the convenient GPS may be inoperable or racked with error.
The self-sufficiency of the celestial navigator, said Bimco, provides what might be described as “armour plating” against such threats, regardless of from where they might arise.
Whatever - heavenly bodies are back on the agenda!
