Our title’s just a fancy way of asking how you’re likely to make out finding your way around when you don’t have an internet signal and your GPS is down.
Let’s take a look at why that’s important – and what to do about it.
What is a GPS-denied environment?
A “GPS-denied environment” is essentially a military term and a useful example is set out in a paper on Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations that appeared in Springer Nature magazine.
The paper described how swarms of drones are increasingly used for a whole range of tasks such as search and rescue, surveillance, construction, and defence measures. The value of their use makes them ever more vulnerable to attack by adversaries who can choose to block or jam the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) on which the drones depend. The adversaries create a GPS-denied environment.
Since the services still need to be performed, sophisticated and expensive technology has been developed to fill the void left in a GPS-denied environment.
Technology company Leidos has described the elaborate twin systems of sensors that can duplicate the role of GPS – one set based on external sensors and a second set based on inertial sensors that detect relative motion.
Back to basics
Very few preppers have the manifold resources required for anything like the technologically sophisticated set-up described by Leidos. Instead, you’ll need to get back to some basics.
And getting back to basics when it comes to geographical positioning means knowing how to use a compass and becoming familiar all over again with the rudiments of map reading.
With a compass and any half-decent map, you will be able to see exactly where you are – and, more importantly, see how to navigate towards a place of safety.
How to learn it
Learning map reading skills and the vital role played by a handheld compass are similar to many other talents you will pick up as a prepper – typically, it involves a combination of book-learning, online browsing, and face-to-face training courses.
Here are five useful tips for learning map reading skills:
- Choose the right map – this is largely a question of choosing the most appropriate scale of map for the ground you’re likely to cover. Thanks to the Ordnance Survey every inch of the British Isles – unlike many other countries – is extremely well mapped;
- Familiarise yourself with your compass – your compass will prove an indispensable friend because it will never fail to point out the direction of north in any situation you’re in (further reading: Using a compass);
- Recognise those topographical features – map reading relies on your recognising the topographical features that are described and you’ll soon learn that a five-mile hike uphill and down-dale is going to take considerably more effort than five miles on the flat;
- Rely on your map – even when you’re armed with a detailed map, your mind might be leading you off in a different direction entirely. In any such battle of wits, remember that your map will win out every time, whatever your so-called instincts are telling you; and
- Practice – it’s as true of map reading as it is of any of the prepper’s skills: you can never get enough practice but keep in mind the fact that practice makes perfect.
Books, online reading, map reading, and orienteering courses will all help you practice the skills you will need for the day you face a GPS-denied environment.
Make it fun, too, with some competitive orienteering – simply contact the British Orienteering Federation to find an event near you or sign up for one of the courses run by Go Orienteering.
Summary
When disaster strikes and your GPS goes down, you won’t have the resources of the modern military to bail you out with sophisticated technological alternatives – you’ll be forced very much back to basics.
Those basics revolve entirely around the – almost lost – art of map reading and compass bearings. The basics are easy to learn, and the skills will develop through constant practice – so it may be best to get started today.
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