Quote Originally Posted by Dreadnaught View Post
I know about the Gaza stuff. Lots of debate over there about whether commercial satellites should be legally compelled to reduce the level of accuracy in the satellite maps.

Just surprised that actual formal militaries do make due with the cheap-and-good-enough tools when there is a clear and ongoing border dispute like between Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
I think the dispute is a little overrated - the US has border disputes with Canada, too.

Also, these are hardly formal militaries. Costa Rica officially doesn't have a military (though they have some paramilitary security forces) and Nicaragua's military is a pathetic shell of what it used to be in the Cold War era - 14k personnel, a nearly nonexistent air force and navy, and a handful of armored vehicles

*shrugs* They're both very much small time and just used Google Maps as an excuse to make some noise over an old grievance.

For that matter, it's not just the small fry who use commercial stuff - the US military has been using smartphones instead of its fantastically expensive Land Warrior system (now canceled) because while iPhones and Driods aren't quite as rugged as the military wants, they're cheap and pretty good for most things. The Pentagon has been running competitions for the best apps, mostly focusing on situational awareness and the like. COTS components are frequently being integrated into new US weapons systems, particularly aircraft. Both drones and some of the newer (and cheaper) recon aircraft rely heavily on off-the-shelf components.

For relatively mature technologies, there's really no reason why even fancy-pants militaries should spend extra money for a gold-plated solution. Google Maps hardly has the accuracy or resolution (or timeliness) of the best stuff the military can put out, but it's certainly enough for most people.