Military Plans Next-Generation GPS
Discovery Channel, November 28, 2007
The U.S. military is working on super-powerful updates to its GPS satellite navigation technology to
try to trump the rival European Galileo project which just received key funding, experts say.
European Union lawmakers agreed last week on a budget to include 2.4 billion euros ($3.5 billion) for
the stalled Galileo satellite-navigation project, now set to be deployed by 2013, the EU presidency
said.
But in a bid to maintain its economic and military edge in the sector, the United States
has been preparing to wheel out GPS III satellites, the most significant upgrade to its Global
Positioning System since it was first launched in the 1990s. "The next-generation GPS III
system is expected to have about 500 times the transmitter power of the current system,
multiplying its resistance to jamming," said the defense analysis website Globalsecurity.org.
Satellite navigation systems can allow users on the ground -- from jet pilots to lost motorists -- to
locate any point on Earth. "GPS III will have second and third frequencies to contain civilian signal,
more robust signal transmissions, and provide real-time unaugmented one-meter accuracy" to locate
objects on the ground, Globalsecurity said.
Galileo meanwhile envisages its own network of 30 satellites to beam radio signals to receivers
on the ground. Its supporters promise it will give greater accuracy and reliability than the GPS -- a
challenge to the U.S. leaders in the field.
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"The GPS Block III satellite will provide improved positioning, navigation, and timing services to
military and civil users by improving accuracy, integrity, and resistance to hostile jamming," said
David Madden, commander of the GPS Wing in the U.S. Air Force, in a recent interview. "These new
capabilities will be introduced incrementally in a series of three blocks. The first Block IIIA launch is
scheduled for late 2013," he was quoted as saying, on the specialist GPS website Inside GNSS. The
new U.S. network will eventually consist of 32 satellites.
