Orbiting Galileo
Dr. Richard North at EU Referendum has a most interesting post on the nature of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Galileo satellite positioning and navigation system.

Once again, the European Space Agency (ESA) is lying about the nature of its Galileo satellite positioning and navigation system, denying its military potential and applications, which could have serious threaten global security and already present a direct threat to United States interests.
In a press release yesterday, the ESA reported details of the implementation Galileo, claiming that the "development and in-orbit validation phase is well under way". But what is striking about the release is the egregious claim that "the first completely civil satellite navigation system is moving forward".
This is an utter and direct lie. This is not a "completely civil satellite navigation system".
As I wrote in my recently published Bruges Group paper this system is unavoidably "dual use" and has important – and potentially dangerous military applications

Salient points of Dr North's  paper Galileo: The Military and Political Dimensions:

• Although designed primarily for civilian applications, Galileo will also give the EU a military capability
  
• The move to exploit the military potential comes not from the military or governments, but from industry wishing to capitalise on the "significant commercial opportunities opening". Those "opportunities" come from countries which include Russia, China and Israel, and possibly India. South Korea, Brazil, Japan, Canada, Australia, Mexico and Chile are all discussing participation and, through the European Space Agency, Switzerland and Norway are already associated with the program.
  
• The EU's system could be available to enemies of the United States, and outside its control.
  
• China seems intent on acquiring the capability to neutralise US GPS satellites, while enjoying the use of the separate Galileo system
  
• With or without the [weapons sales] embargo [to China], EADS, Snecma and any other European aerospace company would still have difficulty in exporting armaments incorporating US satellite guidance technology to China. The US retains design and production control of chipsets capable of processing the military standard signal, which incorporate the embedded facility that enables them to be disabled, even if they could get access to the encrypted codes. Thus, technology which relied on GPS would be unusable. For France to maximise its business in China, it needs Galileo - a system that is outside the control of the US.
  
• The control of Galileo is diffuse and the precise mechanisms of control have yet to be published.

Here in the USA the mainstream media has given nearly no attention to this very important development.