US hands control of 9-1-1 system to Russia?

I don't know about the 911 system - how much more could they slow it down, anyway? - but I wouldn't mind having MY cell communications routed through Russian systems rather than US systems... I'd MUCH rather have the KGB listening to my calls than the NSA. You kinda EXPECT that from opponents, not your supposedly own folks.

A note about the Russian GPS system - it's called GLONASS as mentioned above, and I once had a chance to get a GPS receiver that could use either NAVSTAR (US) or GLONASS. I could kick myself in the ass now for not getting it. If the US wants to screw with your day, they can always just turn the "selective availability" back on. Slick Willie made sure that would always be an option when he had it turned off. I'd LOVE to be able to just flip a switch over to Russian GLONASS and still get the accurate bearings if the US decided to start screwing with folks.

Diversity of choice - it's the "in" thing!

They may have some sort of GPS jammers - well, I KNOW they do - like the jammers used for cell phones, but I would think those would have a pretty restricted area of activity. What the "Selective Availability" does is muck up the signal itself - scrambles one of the carriers for differential - so that it mucks up ALL the receivers except the ones with the descrambler circuits, like military PGLRS. It degrades the signal, gives you a much wider margin of error, a bigger "footprint" that the receiver might be located within. With SA off, I can be sure it's right to within 3 to 10 meters, with SA on, that jumps up to 100 to 150 meters. That's big enough for a clean miss if used for targeting, and if you're calling in your OWN position so you don't get caught in friendly mortars or air strikes, well, that's pretty important to leave to too much guesswork in the signal.

That could have been a real problem in the last wars if they hadn't turned it off - there weren't enough PLGRS to go around, so a lot of guys were taking off-the-shelf-from-Walmart Garmin and Magellan civilian units with them.

It's much more convenient to read MGRS grids off of a display to call in than it is to get the old map, protractor, and roamer out and figure your spot when there's about to be a drone overhead breathing down your neck and bringing smoke. Every civilian hand-held unit I've ever had came with MGRS built in, just for that. I had a Magellan that had THREE DIFFERENT MGRS systems built in. That was a headache until I got it going with the program and figured out the right system. It was great - even had the 1942 Pulkovko datum built in, for use with Russian maps.

The one I have for cars doesn't have all that. No grids at all - but it sure has pretty pictures! Useless away from a car, though.