Department of Defense Weighs Options for GPS III

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Tags: DOD, GPS, Military
Publication: Ainonline.com
Publication Date: 08/05/2013

The core structure of the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) stands vertical in Lockheed Martin’s GPS III Processing Facility.

Image credit: Lockheed Martin

Planners at the Pentagon are said to be concerned that costs of the future GPS 3 system could become unattainable, despite its major advances and the need to have updated spacecraft ready to replace the current satellites in orbit.

The Department of Defense (DOD) and industry engineers are seeking ways to minimize costs, causing a number of proposals to be investigated. The military electronics payload, accounts for over half of each satellite’s cost. At least two of these systems have been identified. Nudets, a nuclear detonation and explosion tracking system that rapidly identifies nuclear explosions anywhere on earth and transmits data to earth stations, is said to be the most expensive element, while nuclear “hardening,” to shield the satellites’ electronics from nearby nuclear weapon blasts, is also costly. Neither of these systems is likely to be removed from future satellites. Innovative technology may reduce their size, weight and possibly cost.

Additional solutions include extending the acceptable orbital lives of its current satellites and the development of NibbleSats to only carry the basic GPS signal transmissions and could potentially replace roughly half of the constellation’s full military/civil space vehicles.

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