Why are U-2 jet pilots wearing Garmin satellite navigation smartwatches?

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  The current model U-2S aircraft features an all-glass digital cockpit, improved sensors, and propulsion systems. But its pilots still wear backup GPS/GLONASS-enabled watches, just in case. [credit: USAF ]

Earlier this month, US Air Force General James M. "Mike" Holmes acknowledged what many in the defense community and defense media already knew. Pilots of the venerable and iconic Lockheed U-2 Dragon Lady high altitude reconnaissance jet wear GPS-enabled Garmin smartwatches for navigation backup. General Holmes, who leads the Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC), was responding to a question about military communications system vulnerabilities at a conference in Washington, DC. And he opined that the Air Force should be able to use the wide variety of commercial communications paths available.

"My U-2 guys fly with a watch now that ties into GPS but also Baidu and the Russian system and European system... so if someone jams GPS they still get the others," Holmes said.

Indeed, U-2 pilots from the 99^th Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California have been flying with Garmin's D2 Charlie smartwatches since late 2017, when the squadron acquired 100 of the watches, according to Garmin spokesperson Jessica Koss.

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