So yes, Google can be very impressed with Google. But I'm not sure that's the issue here.
Is it really surprising that people who have extremely precise time needs and a whole team devoted to solving them would notice issues that other people wouldn't? I think it's a very common pattern that a product has some set of trailblazer users who find issues before the people who make the product.
Also, I think you're over-interpreting. "Had to" here only means that they noticed and reported the issue first because their system depended on GPS time being right. It doesn't preclude the possibility that the USAF would notice and fix the issue eventually, just with a higher latency that Google wanted.
Is it really surprising that people who have extremely precise time needs and a whole team devoted to solving them would notice issues that other people wouldn't? I think it's a very common pattern that a product has some set of trailblazer users who find issues before the people who make the product.
Also, I think you're over-interpreting. "Had to" here only means that they noticed and reported the issue first because their system depended on GPS time being right. It doesn't preclude the possibility that the USAF would notice and fix the issue eventually, just with a higher latency that Google wanted.