Like the Internet, GPS is an essential element of the global information infrastructure. GPS technology is found in everything from cell phones and wristwatches to shipping containers, and ATM's. The system boosts productivity across a wide swath of the economy, to include farming, construction, mining, surveying, supply chain management and more. Major communications networks, banking systems, financial markets, and power grids depend on GPS and the technology is embedded in virtually every U.S. military asset making armed forces safer and more effective.
On May 15, 2008, the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., awarded Lockheed Martin a contract to build the next-generation Global Positioning System, known as GPS III.
GPS III will improve position, navigation and timing services and provide advanced anti-jam capabilities yielding superior system security, accuracy and reliability. The first GPS III satellites 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.
Under the Development and Production contract, the team of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, ITT Exelis, and General Dynamics will produce the first two of a planned eight GPS III satellites. The contract also includes a Capability Insertion Program (CIP) designed to mature technologies and perform rigorous systems engineering for the future increments to improve capabilities and meet the increasing demands of military, civil and commercial GPS users worldwide.
The GPS III team is led by the Global Positioning Systems Directorate at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. Air Force Space Command's 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS), based at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., manages and operates the GPS constellation for both civil and military users.
Lockheed Martin’s GPS Heritage
For GPS III, Lockheed Martin will build on its proven record of providing progressively advanced spacecraft for the current GPS constellation.
Lockheed Martin designed and built 21 GPS IIR satellites for the Air Force and subsequently modernized eight of those spacecraft, designated GPS IIR-M, to enhance operations and navigation signal performance. The fleet of Lockheed Martin-built GPS IIR and IIR-M satellites makes up the majority of the operational GPS constellation. The satellites have exceeded 140 cumulative operational years on-orbit with a reliability record of better than 99.9 percent, an unmatched record of exceptional performance and reliability for GPS users around the globe. Lockheed Martin heritage also dates back to the production of the Oscar and Nova satellites, the original navigation programs that paved the way to the current GPS system.
