The U.S Air Force and Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) have been the diligent stewards of GPS since its conception in the 1970s and continue its commitment to this critical component of our National Infrastructure. “I have high confidence we will continue to sustain at least the 24 satellites required to maintain our current performance standard,” said Gen. C. Robert Kehler, AFSPC commander. The current GPS constellation has 30 operational satellites, the most satellites and the greatest capability in history.
“We are committed to maintaining our current level of service, while striving to increase and improve service and capability through on-going modernization efforts,” said Lt. Gen. Tom Sheridan, Commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center, the acquisitions arm for AFSPC. “The Air Force will continue to execute an achievable growth path maintaining GPS as the premier provider of positioning, navigation and timing for the military and civilian users around the world.”
“Just as it was reported in the Government Accountability Office’s report May 7, AFSPC acknowledged the potential for an availability gap years ago, and has actively pursued and institutionalized procedures and processes to mitigate the potential gap or minimize any impact. The command developed key processes within the operational community as well as the acquisition community to extend the life of on-orbit assets and to ensure GPS capability is delivered in a timely manner. The Air Force launched the seventh of its current block of IIR-M satellites in April, and will launch another one this Fall, followed by the first of 12 Block IIF satellites in early Fiscal 2010. The IIF’s sophisticated L-band payload will include new hardware that serves the civil user community. The next generation of GPS satellites, the GPS IIIA, with additional navigation signals for both civilian and military users will improve the accuracy and availability for all users. GPS IIIA is scheduled for first launch in 2014.
“New acquisition approaches, including phased acquisition and prototyping, will reduce risk to constellation sustainment in the future,” said General Sheridan.
“Let me state emphatically — since we declared Full Operational Capability in 1995, the Air Force has maintained the constellation above the required 24 GPS satellites on orbit at 95 percent. In fact, we have achieved sub-three meter accuracy,” said General Kehler. “The Air Force has been a good GPS steward continually providing ‘better than expected’ service to our GPS users. At this point, we foresee no significant loss of service in the future, near or far.”
The Boeing statement reads, “GPS IIF will deliver more capability and improved mission performance to military and civilian users. Working very closely with the Air Force and its team, Boeing has taken aggressive steps to resolve the technical issues on IIF with a strong emphasis on Mission Assurance. Design changes were required to ensure performance over the satellite design life and have caused schedule delays, but these changes are in the final phase of implementation and a fully integrated satellite (SV1) has already successfully completed the thermal-vacuum test program – the most stressing system level test. SV2 was shipped to the Cape on May 6 to perform system-level compatibility tests and serve as a risk reduction pathfinder for SV1 processing later this year. We are on track to deliver SV1 to the Air Force later this year for the first IIF launch. The Operational Control Segment was put into service in 2007 and has been successfully flying the current GPS constellation and will also support the IIF series of satellites.”
