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Re:Planned GPS outages in southern California by hamiltonkibbe on Tuesday June 07, 2016 @06:34PM (#11858536)
As part of a larger system yes, but on their own they're only accurate for a while, as they constantly accumulate error. They require input from other sensors (generally GPS) to provide accurate location.
Re:Planned GPS outages in southern California by runjake on Wednesday June 08, 2016 @12:08PM (#11863210)
They need recalibration after every 1-2 sorties for best results but they don't require input from GPS or other sensors. GPS synchronization largely eliminates the need for support staff to recalibrate. INS is incredibly accurate on its own, assuming pre-flight calibration.

Source: Worked on said GPS/INS systems in the military.

Re:Planned GPS outages in southern California by hamiltonkibbe on Thursday June 09, 2016 @12:42AM (#11867599)
And what do you use to tell it where exactly it is during pre-flight calibration?

They "require" GPS input in the sense that if I handed you an INS that was initialized/calibrated with some precision (Oministar/RTK/P-code GPS/ whatever) reference but had been running in the trunk of my car (or dangling from the collar of a feral cat) for N hours/days, there's no way you'd fly a plane with it without initializing it with some sort of position referene.

(If you came up with "sit it on some previously surveyed datum, and you don't need GPS" on your own, you get an A)