FY15 Budget: GPS III Procurement to Slow, Dual-Launch Funding Cut

The Air Force is slowing GPS modernization and dropping part of the funding for dual launch of satellites, said defense officials describing the President’s Fiscal Year 2015 (FY15) budget on Wednesday (March 5, 2014).

Air Force Undersecretary Eric Fanning said the Air Force would continue to “honor our investments and obligations” regarding the Global Positioning System but would “reprofile” the GPS III program so that it meets constellation sustainment demands.

DoT Agrees to GPS CNAV Test Plan, Seeks Public Comment

In a Federal Register notice issued today (March 5, 2014), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT) invited public comments on U.S. Air Force plans to implement preoperational L2C and L5 civil navigation (CNAV) messages on GPS Block IIR-M and IIF satellites next month.

Pentagon Chooses Global Hawk over U-2, Trims Other Unmanned Systems

With the war in Afghanistan winding down and the pressure against federal spending increasing, the Pentagon is reconfiguring itself for leaner peacetime operations and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are among the programs being affected.

NIST Plans GPS Cybersecurity Research

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is building a new lab that will support work on securing the use of GPS signals.

“We are currently standing up a smart grid cybersecurity test lab, and one of our future research cases for later in this year or early next year, depending on when we finish building this lab, is GPS security,” said Victoria Pillitteri, an advisor for information system security at NIST, which is under the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Change in GPS IIR/IIR-M Satellite Battery Charging Will Extend Mission Life

Modifications in the battery charging protocol of on-orbit GPS satellites are expected to substantially extend the mission life of the spacecraft — a particularly timely development as technical and financial difficulties have raised doubts about keeping the system’s next-generation Block III satellites on schedule for launch readiness.

GPS IIF-5 Heads for Orbit

The U. S. Air Force successfully launched the fifth GPS Block IIF satellite yesterday evening (February 20) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Proposed FCC E911 Rule Would Strengthen Indoor Location Accuracy Requirement

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today (February 20, 2014) proposed rules to help emergency responders better locate wireless callers reporting emergencies.

House Committee Moves to Block Loran-C Teardowns

Lawmakers overseeing the Coast Guard approved language this week that would stop the agency from dismantling facilities needed for eLoran, a proposed system that has gained wide support as a backup in case GPS signals are jammed, blocked, spoofed, or otherwise rendered unusable.

In “markups” or adjustments to language in the FY 2015 Coast Guard authorization bill, a House transportation subcommittee proposes to halt the tearing down of stations in the Coast Guard’s old Loran-C navigation system, which was turned off in 2010.