Why modern officers still learn sextant navigation

The Royal Navy is described as having restored training with traditional charts and sextants after reconsidering the consequences of losing GPS and other electronic aids. Manual methods give bridge teams a fallback and teach the underlying principles of navigation. Navies with sail-training ships are thought likely to retain similar skills. The comparison with American training is less certain: one panelist describes efforts during the Clinton era to restore manual skills to some bridge crews but cannot confirm fleet-wide adoption. In the time-travel scenario, an accurate modern watch could also help with longitude, provided it continued working or the officer had a suitable mechanical watch.