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Lockheed Martin Awarded GPS III
D Ninja writes "Yesterday, Lockheed Martin was awarded the $1.4 billion Air Force contract to build the next-generation global positioning satellite system. This occurred after a series of delays as the Air Force decided between Lockheed and the competing bidding contractor, Boeing Co. 'GPS III, will give new navigation warfare (NAVWAR) capabilities to shut off GPS service to a limited geographical location while providing GPS to US and allied forces. GPS III will offer significant improvements in navigation capabilities by improving interoperability and jam resistance. The procurement of the GPS III system is planned for multiple blocks, with the GPS IIIA portion currently underway. GPS IIIA includes all of the GPS IIF capability plus up to a ten-fold increase in signal power, a new civil signal compatible with the European Union's Galileo system, and a new spacecraft bus that will allow a growth path to future blocks.'"
Galileo is going at 2 frequencies 1164 to 1214 MHz and 1563 to 1591 MHz. While it looks like (the civilian part) of this version is just centered at the (L2 = 1227.60 MHz) & (L5 = 1176.45 MHz) - so the 1164-1214 civilian GPS units for Galileo should work with the civilian bands for these satellites too. As for the military stuff.... well I couldn't say.
Prediction: The real iPhone killer is going to be sex robots from Japan. Think about it.
I happen to have done some engineering work on GPS, and I can say that these additions are extremely non-trivial and cannot be done with existing hardware. The way the signals are transmitted must be changed entirely. The good news is that this system will allow for real-time ionospheric distortion mitigation (a problem for any non-DGPS receivers with the current system) and provide enough signal strength that even super-cheap receivers will be very accurate.
:-)
Also, this cost would likely have occurred anyway - the current satellite constellation won't live forever. The satellites will run out of orbital maintenance fuel, or their clocks will begin to drift erratically, and at some point in the foreseeable future, the constellation will lose enough satellites that it will be mostly unusable. So if we'll be launching new ones anyway, why not make them better?
I also understand your humanitarian question, however, the support that GPS provides in science and education (even though it was and is a military project in the USA) truly does humankind a great service. Oh, and it lets me find good pizza no matter where I am in the city, which is truly humanitarian
Because the 1.4bn is used for more than what you trivialize it to be for. The 1.4bn is for the entire contract but the initial goal is to only have 2 satellites launched with the option for 10 more. They will be integrating with the existing EU Galileo system and provides who knows what else in additional features. As one guy in the article said "'You are guaranteed a lot of business for the next 20 years. It may be enough to drive the losing competitor out of this market.'" In addition to the materials, you also have labor which, in many cases, can exceed the cost of the materials especially with contracts lasting as long as this one can. The article doesn't go into details but the contract sounds like it also includes operations and maintenance once the satellites have been launched which is icing on the cake for Lockheed.
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
US weapons are guided by INS with GPS augumenting that. Turn of GPS and you've still got a pretty accurate INS system to rely on.
"Freedom Through Vigilance"
They do not *require* gps. They use it when available. Wiki: "JDAM equipped bombs are guided to their target by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver for enhanced accuracy" Its the same as ICBMs, sure, no gps removes an advantage, but you can sure as hell go to war without gps, and the US barely uses GPS in the way the public might believe. Special ops guys painting targets with lasers is still far more common, cheaper and more accurate in most cases. The US GPS system would be the first target in any major war with any major state from now on, the US military is well aware of this, no weapon will be GPS only, ever... if you cant bomb a target you can see, thats pretty stupid
There are still radio navigation systems such as LORAN available for ships. They aren't as accurate as GPS, but accuracy in this case means finding an airport, not finding one bolt on a chair in the airport office.
Even with GPS and Galileo and Beidou, it's still good to learn pilotage, dead reckoning, and celestial navigation. Sailing without them is similar to not knowing how to make change without the computer telling you.
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