WASHINGTON — Despite recent warnings about the vulnerability of its Global Positioning System (GPS) to enemy jamming, the U.S. Air Force has scaled back its near-term plans to harden the satellite navigation system against intentional interference.
The service has dropped a proposal to make power upgrades to the Lockheed Martin-built GPS 2R satellites now being deployed, according to industry officials. The first of eight GPS 2R craft that were targeted for the upgrades was to launch in 2004. The Air Force will proceed with plans to boost power levels on a follow-on series of five Boeing-built GPS 2F satellites, the first of which is slated to launch in 2005, an industry official said.
Meanwhile, the Air Force has delayed plans to award the prime contract to build a new generation of highly jam-resistant GPS satellites, dubbed GPS 3, from 2003 until 2006, according to industry officials.
Nevertheless, the Air Force still expects to begin launching the GPS 3 satellites in 2011 as previously planned, the officials said.
Plans to defer the GPS 3 procurement were first reported in Defense Daily.
Air Force Lt. Col. Art Haubold, a spokesman for the service, declined to discuss plans for the GPS program prior to the release of the 2004 U.S. defense budget in the coming weeks.
Rick Skinner, vice president of Lockheed Martin Navigation Systems of King of Prussia, Pa., said plans still call for adding new military and civilian signals to eight of the 14 GPS 2R satellites yet to be launched. But the company has been informed by the Air Force that an expected contract to modify the satellites’ power systems and solar panels to increase their resistance to jamming will not be forthcoming. That work would have been worth $30 million over a three-year period beginning in 2004, he said.
Increased GPS power levels would make it more difficult to jam the satellites’ signals using relatively inexpensive and easily concealed devices, Skinner said.
Mike Rizzo, director of navigation systems at Boeing, said his company still expects to sign a contract shortly with the Air Force to boost the signal-power of the GPS 2F satellites.
The changes to the GPS upgrade plans come amid conflicting signals from the Air Force regarding threat to the navigation satellites posed by enemy jamming attempts.
Air Force Undersecretary of Defense Peter B. Teets, speaking with reporters here in September, said "GPS in its current form is fairly susceptible to jamming. So we are concerned about an enemy or an adversary being able to potentially, with jammers, deny us this high-precision weapon delivery," capability.
Among the many uses of GPS is precisely guiding bombs to their targets.
More recently, Air Force Gen. Lance W. Lord, commander of Air Force Space Command, played down the threat in the context of looming U.S. military action against Iraq. "If somebody is trying to say that ‘we are going to jam GPS, and that is going to be an effective strategy to depend on,’ I think they are wrong," Lord told reporters here in January.
Haubold said Lord’s remarks do not signal a change in the Air Force’s assessment of GPS vulnerability. He said Teets and Lord are in agreement on the issue, adding that Lord’s remarks were focused specifically on the possibility of enemies using low-power jamming equipment to disrupt GPS signals.
Congressional staffers said they plan to learn more about the reasoning behind the Air Force’s recent GPS decisions in upcoming meetings with program officials. Of particular concern is the three-year delay to the GPS 3 procurement, they said. Finding money for the program will not be any easier in 2006 than it would be today, they said. The staffers also questioned whether it would be possible to begin the procurement in 2006 and still start launching the satellites in 2011.
