With the Galileo system finally operational - scheduled for 2008 - the world's navigators need no longer rely on the USA's global positioning system (GPS), or the Russian global navigation satellite system (GLONASS).

The £2.3bn project started some four years ago and has managed to stagger this far, in spite of funding wrangles and complaints from the USA about Galileo's technical aspects.

The recent vote approving funding for the development phase of Galileo was the third try; the first two attempts failed because some European countries - led by our own chancellor, Gordon Brown - became worried about the costs of the project and the public/private finance funding deal, which they complained was too complex to work.

Galileo's main purpose right now seems to be as a political football for those with axes to grind. The Americans decided last December that Galileo's operating frequencies might upset their own GPS system.

Oulined US fears The US deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, outlined the US fears in a letters to European defence ministers. He also pointedly remarked that Europe benefits from its GPS and also conducts joint operations with the US military.

Europe responded - in the form of Jacques Chirac - with warnings that failure to develop the Galileo project would result in Europe becoming scientific and technological servants to the Americans.

Such an intolerable situation, said the anti-US lobby, would inevitably lead to Europe becoming industrial and economic vassals to the superpower.

Another barb in Chirac's argument was the suggestion that those who opposed the project would be seen as deep in America's pocket.

Pro-Galileo enthusiasts also point towards huge commercial benefits to Europe. The EC vice president responsible for transport and energy, Loyola de Palacio, says the project will create 150,000 jobs and generate an income of 10bn a year.

Some of those new jobs are likely to be created at Astrium, the Portsmouth-based satellite manufacturer. The firm expects orders worth around £70 million from the Galileo project and expects to add up to 250 new staff.

The tecchies - the EC Signal Task Force - added their support for Galileo and dismissed the US frequency frights by saying conflicts would be easy to overcome and that Galileo should use a spread-spectrum signal that would overlay the GPSL1 and L5 signals.

The task force added that GPS employs bi-phase shift key modulated signals, while Galileo will use a binary offset carrier structure.

GPS acceptable But the GPS supporters ask why do we need to spend all that money when the GPS system is perfectly acceptable and getting better all the time?

And Europe already has a part of it, they say, without going the full Galileo route.

In the US, the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is a joint project by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Transport.

WAAS uses a combination of earth stations and the GPS satellite constellation to correct for GPS signal errors caused by ionospheric disturbances, timing and satellite orbit errors.

With an eye on satellite failures, it also provides vital integrity information regarding the health of each GPS satellite.

But while WAAS is available only in North America, Asia is working on its own system with the Japanese Multi-Functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS).

And Europe now has its own system, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).

EGNOS only received its final approval for operations in March this year, shortly before the approval of Galileo funding.

And EGNOS is the first step towards Galileo.

A joint project involving the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Commission (EC) and Eurocontrol, the European organisation for the safety of air navigation, an EGNOS System Test Bed is in operation right now, transmitting to potential users via an Inmarsat satellite. The full system is scheduled for 2004.

For the air transport industry, EGNOS offers greater positional accuracy, especially in the vertical plane.

Cost savings The system will also bring enormous cost savings as ground infrastructures will no longer be needed. Aircraft will be guided in approach and landing, enabling curved approaches that give greater operational efficiency and environmental benefits.

But EGNOS will probably have its greatest effect in offering precision tracking facilities. For example, a simple EGNOS receiver and transmitter could be built into a container, so its position is know every minute of every day, regardless of whether it's in a 100 acre storage depot, on the deck of a ship, or washed over board and threatening sea traffic.

How will all this affect the recreational marine industry?

Degree of backup Stuart Thompson, marketing director of Raymarine, says: "It will give a degree of backup to the GPS system."

But he's not certain Galileo will bring benefits for the recreational sailor. "I can't see any reason why it should, " he said. "For most marine applications what we have today will be perfectly adequate." You 're within three or four metres today, he added.

Thompson does, however, see benefits apart from positional accuracy. "We 're looking at GPS - and possibly Galileo technology in the future - for attitude sensing and heading sensing."

And when will the hardware be available? Not for some time, that's for sure.

Tony Broad, service/support and MIS manager at Garmin (Europe), said he had been talking with Garmin in the USA about Galileo. "they are watching developments with close interest, " he told BB.

"Until we have some working satellites that we can test with - around 2005/6 - we do not know how well our receivers will work with this system, which claims interoperability with both GPS and GLONASS systems.

"Whether that means an existing GPS receiver with appropriate software will simply be able to receive it, we don't yet know."

Thompson said: "As and when we have the demand for the hardware, we will respond to it."