[SatNews] Allies in general and also in spatial navigation is now formally cemented into place.

The United States and the European Union (EU) now have an agreement in place that unifies both with bilateral cooperation between the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the European planned Galileo spaced-based navigation system. This is the conclusion of the first phase of discussions regarding user interoperability as well as the enhanced performance of a combo of GPS and Galileo receivers. Both parties initiated a working group to asses the combined performance for GPS Space-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) receivers that use the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) and the GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). Conclusions revealed improved availability for a broad range of aviation services in both of the hemispheres. Plus, there would be improved robustness to GPS satellite outages. A comparison of GPS, Galileo, and a combo performance for three types of receivers, was also finished. The combined GPS/Galileo would also bring into play various improvements, especially when dealing with partially obscured environments and the use of dual-frequency receivers. The U.S. and the E.U. will continue their work on issues to improve navigation positioning and service offerings around the globe.