http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/20...e_gps_052109w/
Imagine not being able to get cash from an automated teller machine, or
911 responders desperately searching for victims they know are there —
somewhere.
Even worse, imagine precision-guided munitions completely missing their
targets because the global positioning satellite system the military has
come to rely on failed.
All this could happen early in the next decade if the Air Force is unable
to modernize the GPS satellite constellation, warns a new report by the
Government Accountability Office.
“It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new
satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without interruption,”
according to the report, released in April. “Such a gap in capability
could have wide-ranging impacts on all GPS users.”
GPS is the world’s only fully operational position, navigation and timing
system. The global economy — from airlines to shipping companies to banks
— depends on the Air Force maintaining a constellation of 24 satellites at
all times to keep the system working.
Air Force officials acknowledge that a series of launch delays or on-orbit
failures could cause problems for civilian users, but said the military
would only be affected minimally, even if the system fell to fewer than 24
satellites. Operators could buy extra time with the remaining satellites
by shutting down nonessential systems to save power, extending the
satellites’ life.
“We would still have GPS capability, and … we would manage the
constellation to optimize performance … to support war-fighting activity,
so we probably wouldn’t see much of a difference,” said Col. Dave Madden,
commander of the GPS wing at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. “The
bottom line is we have high confidence [in our] plans to sustain and
modernize the constellation,” he said.
The Air Force plans to invest more than $5 billion during the next five
years to modernize GPS satellites and ground control segments. A delay of
even two years for the next-generation GPS III — the first of which is
scheduled for launch in 2014 — would reduce the probability of maintaining
the minimum constellation to about 10 percent by 2018, the report says.
The report notes that this is not an unlikely outcome, since problems with
the current GPS IIF satellites put the program three years behind
schedule.
The Air Force currently has 34 GPS satellites on orbit — 10 more than the
minimum requirement — including four backups that are not even
broadcasting a signal, Buckman said. Over the next four years, the Air
Force plans to launch 13 current-generation GPS satellites, which Air
Force officials have said should provide a smooth transition from the
current to modernized system.
“We recognize that there is a risk there,” said Col. Dave Buckman, Air
Force Space Command’s lead for position, navigation and timing systems.
“What we would say however, is we would not assign the same risk to that
as perhaps was indicated in the GAO report.”
Similar Threads
Linear Mode
