Lockheed Martin and ITT are teaming to vie to build USAF’s next generation Global Positioning System Block III satellite, according to a Lockheed press release. As in their previous partnership on the GPS Block IIR and IIR-M series, Lockheed will be the prime contractor and spacecraft integrator, while ITT will provide the navigation payloads. Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile System Center expects to award the multi-billion contract next year.
The Space Force is playing midwife to a new ecosystem of commercial satellite constellations providing alternatives to the service’s own Global Positioning Service from much closer to the Earth, making their signals more accurate and harder to jam.