The 2007 Air Force budget request allots $315 million to the Global Positioning System Block III satellite program, which is to offer higher anti-jam capabilities and improved accuracy and availability and integrity, as well as the capability to deny adversary use. The first launch for GPS III is slated for 2013. The 2007 dollars would fund a development contract for the spacecraft and a modernized ground segment.
A decade and a half after awarding a contract for a new ground control system to manage its GPS satellites, the Pentagon has finally gotten its hands on the thing. The Space Force officially took ownership of the GPS Next Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, the service announced this week.…