alt Hacker NewsThat's not accurate. Navigationally critical VORs are continuing to be maintained, they're just turning off the podunk redundant ones.
VOR Candidate Retention List | Federal Aviation Administration https://www.faa.gov/ato/navigation-programs/vor-retention-li...
See specifically the "MON" concept:
> The VOR MON program is designed to enable aircraft, having lost GPS service, to revert to conventional navigation procedures. This will allow users to continue through the outage area using VOR station-to-station navigation or to proceed to a MON airport where an Instrument Landing System (ILS), Localizer (LOC) or VOR approach procedure can be flown without the necessity of GPS, Distance Measuring Equipment (DME), Automatic Direction Finder (ADF), or surveillance. Any airport with a suitable instrument approach may be used for landing, but the VOR MON assures that at least one airport will be within 100 Nautical Miles (NM).
* https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/at...
2011:
* https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2011/12/15/2011-31...