Latest Version of GPS Launches: The
Air Force launched the first modernized Global Positioning System satellite built by Lockheed Martin aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., at 11:37 pm Sunday night. The satellite, a GPS IIR-M, is the first in a series of eight GPS IIR satellites Lockheed is modernizing. Among the features provided by the new sats, once they reach initial operational capability, are two new military signals and a second civil signal on a different frequency, as well as a new antenna panel for increased signal power to receivers on the ground.
The Air Force wants more companies able to produce its new, multi-use, anti-radar missile that one expert says will prove vital in any future peer conflict and would be in high demand for the war in Iran if stocks were available now.