Improvements To Be Realized With Upcoming Launch Of GPS IIR-M

Cape Canaveral… Florida… The fifth in a series of eight modernized Global Positioning System Block IIR (GPS IIR-M) satellites… Lockheed Martin built this vehicle for the U.S. Air Force. And now the satellite is ready for launch aboard a Delta II rocket. Designated GPS IIR-18M, this satellite is a modernized version of the Block IIR series. It is designed to enhance the GPS constellation for military and civilian GPS users around the globe. The modernized series delivers increased signal power to receivers on the ground, two new military signals for improved accuracy, enhanced encryption and anti-jamming capabilities for the military, plus a second civil signal to provide users with an open access signal on a different frequency.



The GPS constellation provides critical situational awareness and precision weapon guidance for the military and supports a wide range of civil, scientific and commercial functions — from air traffic control to the Internet — with precision location and timing information. Lockheed Martin Navigation Systems, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, is the prime contractor for the GPS IIR program. The navigation payload provider is ITT of Clifton, New Jersey. Both firms designed and built 21 IIR spacecraft and subsequently modernized eight of those spacecraft, designated Block IIR-M, for the Global Positioning Systems Wing, Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, California—Bethesda, Maryland