[09-21-07 – Satellite Today] The U.S. Department of Defense plans to stop procuring GPS satellites that provide the Pentagon the capability to intentionally degrade the accuracy of civil signals, the Department of Defense announced Sept. 18.

The United States halted the intentional degradation of GPS satellite signals in May 2000 after announcing it had the capability to degrade the signal only in certain areas when needed, which the Pentagon dubbed Selective Availability.

The ability will no longer be present in GPS 3 satellites, the Pentagon said. "This decision reflects the United States strong commitment to users of GPS that this free global utility can be counted on to support peaceful civil activities around the world.”

Separately, Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have deployed a ground control system to enhance the operation of the GPS constellation, Boeing announced Sept. 20.

The distributed server-based system, known as the Architecture Evolution Plan, is designed to improve operations, increase efficiency and accommodate future GPS capabilities as they become available.