US set to award contract for new GPS system

The U.S. Air Force is set to award a multibillion-dollar contract this month to either Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) or Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for the first eight satellites in an enhanced Global Positioning System, the popular navigation tool.

The winner-take-all contract to start refurbishing the system could be announced as soon as April 17, Roger Krone, president of Boeing's Network and Space Systems arm, told reporters at a space-industry conference here.

Lockheed Martin has been told to expect it no earlier than April 18, Richard Ambrose, general manager of the company's Surveillance and Navigations Systems business unit, said in an interview during the conference known as the National Space Symposium.

An Air Force spokesman, Maj. Christopher Hemrick, said the Air Force was "targeting" April, with the precise date still to be determined.

At issue initially is a potential $1.8 billion contract for the first eight "Block A" GPS III satellites to provide increased accuracy to users worldwide, compliments of the Pentagon. The first of the new satellites is to be launched in 2014, Ambrose said.

GPS satellites, in one of six Earth orbits, circle the globe every 12 hours beaming navigation and precision timing signals used for everything from mapping to business transaction authentication to modern warfare.

GPS III's first increment is to feature up to 10 times greater signal power than previous configurations, boosting resistance to jamming, perceived as a growing threat.

The Air Force plans to stick with a single prime contractor for eight more satellites in a second GPS III batch and 16 in a third, the service's Space and Missile Systems Center has said.

A total of 18 satellites are required to start operating the new system as projected by 2018, with 24 needed for full operation, the Los Angeles-based center said last year.

he system is operated and controlled by the Air Force Space Command for the Defense Department.

GPS III will incorporate a new civil signal making it interoperable with Europe's Galileo system as well as a military signal called the M-code for the stepped-up anti-jamming capability.