Area Pressure defends plan to purchase smaller, cheaper satellites to bolster GPS 

ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. Area Pressure is exploring methods to bolster the resilience of the World Positioning System (GPS) amid rising issues concerning the constellation’s vulnerabilities. One possibility favored by Air Pressure Secretary Frank Kendall is to make use of smaller, lower-cost satellites to reinforce the prevailing GPS infrastructure. 

Generally known as Resilient GPS (R-GPS), these smaller satellites would offer the U.S. navy extra sources of positioning, navigation and timing information. Kendall has recognized R-GPS as a excessive precedence that ought to transfer ahead as quickly as potential. Nevertheless, the way forward for this system is unsure as lawmakers are questioning its effectiveness and value.

Talking at a DefenseNews convention Sept. 4, Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of area operations, mentioned idea research for R-GPS are ongoing however pressured that this system’s future hinges on congressional approval.

“We’re ready on the 2025 price range on the Hill to see the place it shakes out,” Guetlein remarked. 

The R-GPS program is being pursued beneath a speedy acquisition authority that Congress gave the Protection Division to kickstart high-priority initiatives with out ready for formal price range approvals. The Air Pressure is concentrating on fiscal yr 2026 for extra complete funding.

Regardless of the navy’s push for R-GPS, the Home Appropriations’ protection subcommittee has raised issues about whether or not merely including extra satellites would successfully counter jamming threats, suggesting that various PNT methods is likely to be simpler. Moreover, the committee denied a $77 million funding request for R-GPS, questioning this system’s deal with space-based options with out addressing vulnerabilities in floor gear, such because the navy’s lack of M-code GPS consumer gear, which is extra immune to jamming.

A separate battle over future GPS funding

Over the previous few months, the Area Pressure has been working to deal with Home issues, briefing appropriators and offering extra info forward of Home-Senate negotiations over the protection price range. The Senate has not opposed the R-GPS program.

In the meantime, the Area Pressure’s Area Enterprise Consortium (SpEC) is reviewing business proposals for R-GPS. The consortium launched a request for prototypes and is predicted to pick out 5 ideas for additional research. One method can be to supply regional protection in areas the place there’s excessive ranges of jamming exercise.

“What must be answered is ‘what can we do to shore up the civil sign and the navy sign on GPS to get extra resilience throughout occasions of disaster or battle?’” Guetlein mentioned. 

The talk over R-GPS additionally intersects with discussions about funding for the next-generation GPS IIIF satellites, manufactured by Lockheed Martin. Whereas the Senate permitted funding for 2 GPS IIIF satellites within the 2025 spending invoice, the Home solely funded one. Sources point out that the Division of the Air Pressure would possibly decelerate GPS IIIF purchases in 2026 to assist finance R-GPS, given the excess of 4 GPS III satellites already delivered and awaiting launch.

Lockheed Martin, which received the contract to provide as much as 22 GPS IIIF satellites in 2018, has argued that regular orders are essential to sustaining an environment friendly manufacturing line. The corporate additionally desires to make it clear that R-GPS ought to complement, not exchange, the superior capabilities offered by GPS IIIF. 

“Resilient-GPS is a good instance of how navy forces are rapidly adapting to a altering aggressive setting,” Jesse Morehouse, enterprise growth director for PNT at Lockheed Martin Area, mentioned in a press release to SpaceNews. 

“Whereas R-GPS’ smaller measurement can present foundational PNT bandwidth and allow multi-launch capability for agile and adaptive employment, GPS IIIF nonetheless stays needed to supply the complete suite of crucial mission capabilities that authorities and civilian customers depend on,” Morehouse added. 

Guetlein mentioned efforts to enhance the resiliency of navigation satellites and different methods are a part of a broader Division of the Air Pressure technique geared toward “nice energy competitors.” This method displays a big shift in operational considering, Guetlein famous, “This isn’t a bumper sticker; it’s about utterly altering the way in which we expect and the way in which we function.”

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