Oof, especially regarding GPS, nm (nanometer) and ns (nanosecond) are frequently used units of measurement. Nautical miles seems like it'd be more of a seafaring term?

It's good for anything that goes a good distance over the (spherical) earth's surface. 1 nautical mile is just 1/60th of a degree around.

Slight technical nit-pick: 1 nautical mile is 1/60th of a degree of latitude only, since the distance represented by angular longitudes varies depending on where you are on earth.

With single-digit precision like the article (appropriately) uses: 4×10⁴ km ≈ Earth’s circumference.

Aeronautical navigation also uses nautical miles. And as the article says: "A quarter century ago, the primary use for GPS was aviation and marine navigation".

I wish I had your GPS receiver if you associate nanometers with GPS. ;-)

Its an US article, dont expect much. Anything but metric system is the mantra and people's egos won't allow any change

Maybe don't bag on an entire country without examining your own prejudices.

Nautical miles are used in this article by an aviation magazine presumably because they are the global standard for marine and aeronautical navigation, and have been since well before the metric system was a global standard. It is also worth noting that the US does not use nautical miles as a standard, they use statute miles.

FYI, nautical miles are a useful standard for global navigation since they are referenced to the size of the earth itself.