Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. Photo: U.S. Air Force.

Three of six new Lockheed Martin-developed receivers have now been deployed to help the U.S. Air Force maintain the accuracy of GPS satellite signals. These upgrades of the GPS Monitoring Stations from early 1990s technology are part of an overall effort to modernize and maintain the current GPS ground control system, known as the Architecture Evolution Plan Operational Control Segment.

GPS Monitoring stations are globally-dispersed, fixed-position sites that monitor GPS satellite signals and help maintain their navigation and positioning accuracy for users around the world. In June, the first new Monitor Station Technology Improvement Capability (MSTIC) receiver became operational at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The upgrades continued at Air Force Monitoring Stations on the Kwajalein Atoll and Hawaii, according to Lockheed Martin.

Under Lockheed Martin’s GPS Control Segment (GCS) Sustainment contract, the company developed and deployed the first MSTIC receiver on schedule in under 36 months. The three remaining Air Force GPS Monitoring Stations will be upgraded with MSTIC receivers by the end of 2017, the company stated.

The new MSTIC receiver’s Software Defined Radio (SDR) technology will replace the legacy Monitor Station Receiver Element’s (MSRE) hardware-based Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) platform originally deployed almost two decades ago. MSTIC leverages Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) hardware without the need for custom firmware. According to Lockheed Martin, standard interfaces and the inherent configurability of the architecture simplifies sustainment and enables MSTIC software to migrate to new hardware platforms as commercial vendors increase processing power, improve reliability and enhance cybersecurity.

The Global Positioning Systems Directorate at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missiles Systems Center contracted the MSTIC upgrade. Air Force Space Command’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron (2SOPS), based at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado, manages and operates the GPS constellation for both civil and military users.