The Air Force is pursuing alternative industry sources to provide the navigation payload for its next generation Global Positioning System (GPS) III satellite constellation in case prime contractor Lockheed Martin [LMT] and subcontractor
Exelis [XLS] can’t solve their problems that have delayed delivery and contracted launch dates.
Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. William Shelton said Feb. 7 though the service has reached out to others and will continue to look for other sources, he is not yet ready to give up and believes the product will be good once it is delivered. When pressed on how much longer the Air Force will give Lockheed Martin and Exelis to fix their navigation payload issues, Shelton said he couldn’t predict that.
“Is my patience wearing thin? Yes,” Shelton said at a Capitol Hill event hosted by the Air Force Association’s (AFA) Mitchell Institute. “Has it (reached) the place where I’m going to step off the cliff? No.”
The Air Force said Feb. 3 it delayed the contracted launch availability date of fourth quarter 2015 and the navigation payload delivery date of “early” 2014 due to continuing navigation payload issues. Lockheed Martin has cited signal crosstalk, or interference, as a continuing problem. Payload delivery is now expected this summer, the Air Force said Feb. 3. Shelton said delaying the contracted launch availability date did not meant the service would delay the actual launch itself. The service did not respond by press time when asked about a new earliest contracted launch date.
Exelis said in September it delayed navigation payload delivery to assure there was no crosstalk within the mission data unit. Lockheed Martin spokesman Chip Eschenfelder said significant testing with flight-like engineering units and the first GPS III satellite’s flight hardware indicates that the known technical issues are being resolved, adding the payload hardware is built and currently in testing. Shelton said in September the Air Force was concerned over the challenges to the navigation payload.
Exelis spokesman Jared Adams said other companies, including Boeing [BA], have created navigation payloads in the past and that Boeing created the mission data unit (MDU), or the brains of the navigation payload, for the GPS IIF series. Exelis provided the transmitters for the GPS IIF navigation payload, he said. Boeing spokeswoman Diana Ball declined comment on whether the Air Force approached Boeing about producing the navigation payload in case Exelis fell through.
Shelton said the Air Force doesn’t believe there will be an overall impact to the GPS III constellation with the late delivery of the navigation payload, citing that the Air Force has only launched four of the 12 GPS IIF series satellites it purchased. Boeing is prime contractor for GPS IIF. The fourth and most recent GPS IIF satellite was launched in May. The next launch is scheduled for Feb. 20, Ball said.
GPS III is the Air Force’s next generation position, navigation and timing (PNT) constellation that will replace aging GPS satellites in orbit, improving capability to meet the evolving demands of military, commercial and civilian users.