Space Vehicle 05 at the Lockheed Martin GPS III facility. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)
The fifth GPS III Space Vehicle (GPS III SV05) was launched from Cape Canaveral on 17 June, manufacturer Lockheed Martin announced.
Once in orbit, GPS III SV05 (owned and operated by the US Space Force) will be the 24th satellite in the 31-strong constellation capable of broadcasting the GPS Military Code (M-Code) encrypted signal that enhances anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities.
This is significant as 24 M-Code enabled satellites will bring M-Code to full operational capability.
Eight older GPS IIR satellites are in orbit without M-Code.
Tonya Ladwig, Lockheed Martin VP for Navigation Systems, said: ‘With each satellite we bring to orbit, we help the US Space Force to modernise the GPS constellation's technology and to imagine future capability. Our next three satellites, GPS III SV06, SV07 and SV08, are already complete and just waiting for a launch date.’
Lockheed Martin stated that GPS III satellites ‘provide significant capability advancements over earlier-designed GPS satellites on orbit’, including a threefold improvement in accuracy; up to eight times improved anti-jamming capabilities; and a new civil signal that is compatible with international global navigation satellite systems such as Galileo in Europe.
The airborne three-domain, the two ground-based and the ¼ ATR OpenVPX-based cross-domain systems were engineered to provide real-time security across multi-domain operations.
DARPA’s Mission-Integrated Network Control (MINC) programme was set up to develop an autonomous tactical network and enable critical data flow in contested environments.
Why space is an essential part of modern military capabilities
Defence-secure mixed reality headsets can save hours, or even weeks, of travel time to fix defunct equipment or get subject experts effectively “on-site” where they are needed.
The Joint Counter Radio-Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare (JCREW) counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED) and Drone Restricted Access Using Known Electromagnetic Warfare (DRAKE) counter-UAS (CUAS) systems are mounted and dismounted RF jammers.
Adarga’s Vantage information analysis tool is in service with the UK MoD and individual UK forces. It builds on the company’s Knowledge Platform which processes, organises and analyses open source material, as well as information held by the user’s military, security and intelligence services.
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