Looking Ahead To GPS III ... Design Milestone Reached By LMC

GPS IIIB Satellites To Add Critical New Capabilities For Users Around T= he Globe

A System Design Review (SDR) for the Global Positioning System (GPS) IIIB satellite increment under the U.S. Air Force's next generation GPS III prog= ram was successfully completed recently by prime contractor Lockheed Martin. GPS III will improve position, navigation and timing services and provide advan= ced anti-jam capabilities yielding superior system security, accuracy and reliability for users around the globe.

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Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Newtown, PA, is under contract to produ= ce the first two of a planned eight GPS IIIA satellites, with first launch projected for 2014. The contract, which features a "back to basics&quo= t; acquisition approach, includes a Capability Insertion Program (CIP) designe= d to mature technologies and perform rigorous systems engineering for future GPS= III increments. An important milestone that precedes the Preliminary Design Rev= iew, the GPS IIIB SDR, established requirements for the capability insertion pla= nned for the follow-on GPS IIIB satellites and validated the satellite design wi= ll meet the ever increasing demand of more than one billion GPS users worldwid= e.

"This milestone comes at a pivotal time when the need to affordably= and predictably enhance the GPS constellation's capabilities is at an all time high," said Lt. Col. Don Frew, the U.S. Air Force's GPS III Program Manager. "Thanks to hard work from the entire government and industry = GPS III team, we have a solid, low-risk path to introduce critical new capabili= ties to billions of military, civil and commercial GPS users."

GPS IIIA will deliver signals three times more accurate than current GPS= spacecraft and provide three times more power for military users, while also enhancing= the spacecraft's design life and adding a new civil signal designed to be interoperable with international global navigation satellite systems. GPS I= IIB will provide higher power modernized signals, a fully digital navigation payload capable of generating new navigation signals after launch and a Distress Alerting Satellite System payload that relays distress signals from emergency beacons back to search and rescue operations.

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Meanwhile, the company is progressing steadily on the GPS IIIA program a= nd is on schedule to deliver the first satellite for launch in 2014. In August= of 2010, the joint government and industry team completed a highly successful critical design review, which validated the detailed GPS IIIA design and allowed the program to begin the transition to the production phase. The program has now switched its focus from design to manufacturing and has alr= eady completed 90 percent of the program's 59 manufacturing readiness reviews.

FMI: www.lockheedmartin.com

Reprinted from: aero-news.net