Air Force planning multi-billion dollar GPS upgrade

A long line of tenacious competitors is forming to bid on the US Air Force's multibillion-dollar upgrade plan for the current Global Positioning System, with major players Lockheed Martin and Boeing squaring off for the next generation of GPS satellites. The lucky winning bidder will be responsible for construction of eight new GPS III satellites, which will be deployed for use in 2013. Additionally, the Air Force has opened the door for bidders on its ground-based GPS system (GPS OCX, which will utilize existing satellites) and is expected to choose two of three interested parties for the $160 million development contracts. Apparently, the industry is sweet on the Air Force for splitting the space and ground contracts, and instating a relatively new practice which allows companies to bid directly with the government (as opposed to subcontractors). Way to "aim high," everyone.

[Jon @ Aug 10th 2007 2:19PM]

Anyone else wonder how much longer these billion dollar sats will be free for us users?
The government sure as hell isn't doing this to be nice to us, they'll tax us for it somehow.

[Lompocus @ Aug 10th 2007 6:24PM]

afaik we get to use them. So what, you don't want to pay for the 8 new sats?

I'm guessing you also don't support NASA...

[belial20xx @ Aug 10th 2007 2:31PM]

ok so we tax payers are paying trillions on a war over ego and multi billions more so the track us now...you dont think the are gonna let us use it do you...How bout sinking multi billions into something worthy like ssi or national health care the the american people really can use

[NovaLand @ Aug 11th 2007 4:42AM]

We need those friggin satelites to get an ambulance close to you to save ur ass.

[timatl @ Aug 10th 2007 2:43PM]

The thing i worry about is if we ever go to war with super power the first they will do is take our satellites. The US (civilian and military) has become so dependent on the GPS we would be crippled.

[LordJezo @ Aug 10th 2007 2:45PM]

And you dont think the rest of the modern world has become the same?

[timatl @ Aug 10th 2007 2:59PM]

no one has a sat system like the US. The EU is working on one. And yes, no country is dependent on GPS as the US.

Most important I a concerned about the US first.

[fopkins @ Aug 10th 2007 3:25PM]

@ Macomb:

Damn, when we get into war with South America, Africa, Australia, or Antarctica I'll start to worry then....

[Lompocus @ Aug 10th 2007 6:24PM]

Amazing.

Nobody considers the fact that they WONT get our sattelites?

War = military action. Even if you don't agree with Iraq, you still probably understand the undeniable military might of the US.

F-22, missile defense system (it works, I saw it personally @ 2 AM in the morning 1 1/2 months ago), Abrams tank that's just about invulnerable (There's a video on liveleak showing an Abrams taking a HUGE explosion that knocks it 20 feet into the air, then it comes down, keeps moving, the crew comes out and waves), Uber infantry, GPS accurate to a foot (3 feet if you aren't in the military), etc.

So going to war with anyone means we automatically lose? I don't think so.

And we aren't addicted to teh sats, my family still uses those AAA maps and google earth/maps. We don't own a GPS system.

@ fopkins: rofl, funny!

[Hello Moto @ Aug 11th 2007 3:25PM]

Well both Europe and the developed portions of Asia are the same way. If they destroy our satellites they will have nothing left to use. Once the European system comes online (which requires payment to use, so I don't see it becoming popular so long as GPS is free). So no one will want to destroy these satellites, or we will just destroy theirs.

If we get into war with a country still using maps from AAA, then they will (hopefully?) not have the technology to destroy our satellites.

[Timothy Frierson @ Aug 10th 2007 5:02PM]

Since Gps sats are high orbit(near geosync) and the asat systems demoed to date are low alt (+/- 250nm)...

[ParPar @ Aug 10th 2007 9:53PM]

For the record there are also other Global Positioning Systems. Europe has Galileo and Russia has GLONASS. Galileo is also backed up by China.

[nikster @ Aug 11th 2007 8:06AM]

Galileo is a huge disaster even though no single Sat has been deployed yet. It's a lot better than GPS, it's civilian, it's multi-national, and it's completely worthless as long as it's all ON PAPER only. Fear our theoretical satnav system! Now, no-one wants to pay for it anymore, it's a typical idiotic European tug-o-war.

I, as a European, am frustrated with the fact that the EU never gets anything off the ground. Too many conflicting interests results in a permanent stale-mate. Meanwhile the huge EU bureaucracy is keeping itself busy defining the curvature of cucumbers. And I am not joking.

[Jeff Lewis @ Aug 10th 2007 10:04PM]

I wonder if this is implementing the L5 protocol that was promised almost 7 years ago. Current consumer GPS is L1 and military grade is L2. L5 was supposed to give us accuracy down to 1m or less and was to have a powerful enough signal to be picked up inside buildings.

[GujuGuy67 @ Aug 11th 2007 12:54AM]

Good to know that they are upgrading the systems. For the most part I get access to 7 or so satellites... it can only get more accurate from here.

[Blayne @ Aug 11th 2007 4:39PM]

Put Dick Cheney and Halliburton down for a couple of them.