The first Global Positioning Satellite signal from space occurred on Feb. 22, 1978, writes Col. David Madden, GPS Wing Commander at Los Angeles AFB, Calif., in a Feb. 22 statement. Madden notes that the GPS Block 1 satellites, launched between 1978 and Oct. 9, 1985 “paved the way for an operational system that has revolutionized the way we go to war.”
The Air Force on March 12 awarded contract modifications worth a combined $2.4 billion to Boeing to procure an undisclosed number of E-7 Wedgetail as part of the program's engineering and manufacturing development phase and continue work on the airborne battle management aircraft’s radar.