On CBS’ Sunday Morning show Dec. 1, correspondent David Pogue was invited into the Air Force’s GPS Master Control Station at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to show viewers what GPS is all about.
Pogue discussed the GPS program with Brigadier General DeAnna Burt, who oversees the program as the director of operations at Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.
He also discussed GPS vulnerabilities with Dana Goward, president of the Resilient PNT Foundation and contributor to GPS World magazine.
Pogue also visited Lockheed Martin’s satellite assembly facility, where the new generation of GPS III satellites is being built.
Few commercial UAV operations would be able to inspect transmissions lines, pipelines or train tracks without beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) capability, but these key pieces of infrastructure often situate close to or transit across population centers. Further, many population centers have airports and low-level air traffic. Any tools to keep drones away from air traffic during BVLOS operations will significantly inspection companies. We review three promising solutions here.
Pipeline Inspection
Kongsberg Geospatial in Ottawa, Canada has developed location visualization software tools that are used for air-traffic control, command and control, and air defense applications. The company has several decades of experience in these applications. Its IRIS software was used to support recent UAV oil pipeline inspection operations in Nigeria, providing safety critical airspace deconfliction, supervised by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
The pipeline project was undertaken by Aerial Robotix, a UAS services provider in Nigeria, who used adapted Kongsberg software in its control center to demonstrate safe BVLOS operations, and was then able to obtain the necessary permits. A Schiebel Camcopter S-100 UAV with a 200-kilometer BVLOS capability was used for flight inspection, operating both day and night, with real time high-definition payload imagery sent back to the control station.
Camcopter S-100 prior to BVLOS pipeline inspection flight in Nigeria. (Photo: Schiebel)
Nigeria has a major problem with gasoline theft from pipelines similar to those lines inspected during this project. Recently, 105 people perished in a blast from a ruptured pipe 30 miles north of the city of Umuahia, possibly during scavenging for leaking fuel. It has been claimed that the pipeline had been ruptured by saboteurs earlier, and for the following six weeks villagers had been collecting fuel. Pipeline vandalism is common in Nigeria, even given the risk of fire or explosion, or the risk of prosecution, or even the possibility of being shot on sight.
Unmanned Companion Fighter Aircraft
Boeing just unveiled a concept UAV which is apparently aimed at providing an airborne team-partner for manned aircraft.The concept was introduced at the Australian International Airshow by the Australian Minister for Defense, the Hon. Christopher Pyne MP. The project is slated for a significant R&D investment by the Australian Government and Boeing Australia.
Boeing Airpower Teaming System. (Photo: Boeing Company)Boeing Airpower Teaming System. (Photo: Boeing Company)
The concept model has fighter aircraft lines with a projected 2,000-mile range, autonomous capability, and significant intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensor capability. Flying alongside manned fighter/attack aircraft with artificial intelligence simplifying control, the Airpower Teaming System is designed as a low-cost force multiplier.
The concept includes a pitch for international collaboration offering significant customization so countries can add local content, a key element for any aircraft program designed for off-shore sales.
XQ-58A demonstrator in flight. (Photo: U.S. Air Force)
A day or so after the Airshow (maybe not wanting to be upstaged by Boeing’s announcement?) a release showed up about the first flight of the previously secret XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator. This is apparently a program by the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) partnered with Kratos Unmanned Aerial Systems to develop a UAS which looks to have very similar capabilities to that of the Boeing concept, perhaps at a significantly further advanced stage, with a much more mil-spec UAV sounding name.
The AFRL indicated that the XQ-58A is part of a Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology (LCAAT) (guess that means they don’t much mind losing a few) effort to come up with low-cost force multipliers which can be built quickly using commercial technology and operating from unprepared runways.
(From the Air Force: “The thought is to develop an inexpensive, configurable and producible on demand air vehicle. A number of military applications can be envisioned for an air vehicle with such a capability. One potential application is to use hundreds or thousands of such units in a campaign to overwhelm an enemy’s air defenses and “punch a hole” to enable higher value, less replaceable [aircraft] to engage or monitor enemy systems. Another potential application is to augment the capabilities of high-value intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, systems which may be limited in a specific campaign by distances, quantities, or threats. For all applications, the weapon system is expected to be an air vehicle that would return to base or to a separate location to be recovered. However, because of the mission and because of the low cost, the air vehicle would be attritable, meaning the Air Force would expect and could afford to lose many of the assets.”)
The current program took 2½ years to get to this flying prototype, which still seems pretty lengthy in terms of today’s commercial UAVs. The first flight from Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona lasted an hour and a quarter and all went as expected. Five test flights are planned to check out functionality, aerodynamics, and launch and recovery systems. Kratos is perhaps better known for its family of target drones which have been in use by the US and internationally for some time.
Kratos BQM-177 Navy drone declared operational. (Photo: Naval Air Systems Command)
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. announced in early March that its BQM-177A Subsonic Aerial Target (SSAT) has achieved Initial Operational Capability as reported by the US Navy. A Navy statement said “The first site the BQM-177A will be operated from is Pt Mugu, California. The target is capable of speeds in excess of 0.9 Mach and a sea-skimming altitude as low as 10 feet which provides sea-skimming anti-ship cruise missile threat emulation for the US Navy.”
Parachute System for DJI Phantom 4
Recent testing of the descent rate of a Phantom 4 equipped with a SafeAir parachute system indicated that this UAV/parachute combination may well meet the FAA’s recently published draft rules for flight over people. The parachute system uses on-board indicators to trigger parachute deployment. ParaZero (manufacturer of the SafeAir UAV parachute system) has developed standards, and promises to provide customers with certification data to support waiver applications for flight over people.
Wrap-up
So now we have intuitive software using terrain data and sensor inputs which can provide a visual overlay to supports BVLOS flights, concepts designs and prototypes to support the ‘Loyal Wingman’ approach – flying UAVs alongside existing defense aircraft as force multipliers – and advances towards UAV flight over people using certified parachute safety systems. Just a flavor of the flurry of recent new developments in the world of unmanned aircraft.
The contract will be awarded to a single bidder, the Air Force Space Command stated in the announcement posted on FedBizOpps.gov. The estimated dollar value of the acquisition is $10 billion including all options.
Phase 2 is planned as a single, predominantly fixed-price incentive-type contract awarded via full and open competition for production of 22 GPS III satellites. Deadline for proposals is April 16. Construction is to begin in fiscal year 2019 (Oct. 1, 2018), with delivery of the first satellite in 2026.
For Phase 1, AFSC awarded in May 2016 three fixed-price contracts to Boeing Network and Space Systems, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, which is building the first 10 GPS III satellites. According to the Air Force, “Phase 1 has determined that viable, low-risk, high-confidence sources exist to conduct a full and open competition for Phase 2, the production of 22 GPS III SVs starting in the FY19 timeframe.”
The U.S. Air Force is intermittently jamming its own GPS signals over southern Nevada and Utah this week and next as part of a massive air-to-air combat training exercise, Red Flag 18-1, based out of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The jamming aims to challenge aircrews and their weaponry under realistic fighting conditions. The Air Force has warned that navigation systems including those found in commercial flights may be disrupted or jammed completely across the southwest U.S. during that time, ending February 16. So far no major commercial airline disruptions, flight delays or re-routings have been reported.
The U.S. military, heavily and perhaps overly reliant on GPS, is developing a range of position, navigation, and timing (PNT) technologies being to help overcome the loss of GPS during combat, an increasingly likely scenario now and in years to come. Some have speculated that this year’s exercise specifically has in mind a possible conflict on the Korean Penisula. GPS jamming has regularly emanated from North Korea over the past several years.
“We’re trying a few new and different things with Red Flag 18-1,” said Col Michael Mathes, 414th Combat Training Squadron commander. “This primarily is a strike package focused training venue that we integrate at a command and control level in support of joint task force operations. It’s a lot of words to say that we integrate every capability we can into strike operations that are flown out of Nellis Air Force Base.”
The exercise, which the Air Force conducts annually, typically involves a variety of attack, fighter and bomber aircraft with added participation from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Air Force. This year’s Red Flag is the largest in the exercise’s 42 year history.
Nellis Air Force Base in southern Nevada. (Image: USAF)
Affected Areas. “Arrivals and departures from airports within the Las Vegas area may be issued non-Rnav re-routes with the possibility of increased traffic disruption near LAS requiring airborne re-routes to the south and east of the affected area,” stated an Air Force bulletin. “Aircraft operating in Los Angeles (ZLA) center airspace may experience navigational disruption, including suspension of Descend-via and Climb-via procedures. Non-Rnav SIDs and STARs may be issued within ZLA airspace in the event of increased navigational disruption. Crews should expect the possibility of airborne mile-in-trail and departure mile-in-trail traffic management initiatives.”
Alternate Capabilities. Many Air Force planes have onboard inertial navigation systems, using accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetic sensors to continuously calculate position without GPS signal data, as well as at a higher hertz rate. When available, GPS signals can be used to correct inertial calculations, which tend to drift over time. Fighter planes can also use AESA-scanned array radars teamed with an inertial system for navigation over short ranges. Aircraft electro-optical and infrared sensors can also read terrain over short distances to provide additional navigation.
If strike aircraft have reliable communications or datalinks, other aircraft such as E-8 JSTARS, flying outside the GPS-disrupted zone, may be able to relay position and targeting information. Some missiles carried by strike aircraft have laser-guiding instead of or in addition to GPS-guiding.
The first eight GPS III satellites are under contract and in production at Lockheed Martin’s GPS III Processing Facility outside of Denver.
The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded a contract option to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company to procure two additional GPS III satellites, space vehicles nine and 10 of the next generation. The contract option procures long lead and production hardware.
“The GPS III SV 9 and 10 satellites are expected to be ready for launch in 2022, thus sustaining the GPS constellation and the global utility the world has come to expect,” said Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, the Space and Missile Systems Center’s commander and Air Force program executive officer for space.
The Lockheed Martin team is finishing up final testing and integration activities on the first GPS III satellite, GPS III SV01, and is preparing to deliver it to the Air Force later this year. The second satellite, GPS III SV02, is poised to have its major functional systems fully integrated into one space vehicle prior to starting its own environmental testing. GPS III SV03 also is beginning to take form in the company’s production clean room as its major subcomponents are being assembled. \All eight of the first set of GPS III satellites are in various stages of production at Lockheed Martin’s GPS III Processing Facility outside of Denver.
The government expects to compete future purchases of GPS III satellites, beginning with GPS III SV 11. This competition will maintain the current technical baseline of GPS III and will add additional hosted payloads to increase system accuracy, search and rescue capability, and universal S-band compatibility.
Non-GPS positioning system, White Sands North Range. X = transmitter site. (Photo: U.S. Air force, 746 Test Squadron)
Can’t Deny the Truth: Defeating the Jamming Threat
Initial Operational Capability for the Ultra High-Accuracy Reference System has been declared by the U.S. Air Force. Even when GPS is being completely jammed, UHARS provides extremely accurate positioning, navigation and time — more accurate than GPS — over the large area of White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Amid a growing concern about GPS jamming in military areas of operation, testing GPS receivers and antenna systems in a GPS-denied environment has become increasingly important to Department of Defense (DoD) agencies. However, since GPS is often the “gold standard” position, navigation and time information that serves as a truth reference during field and flight testing, conducting tests in an area that has no GPS availability because of intense jamming makes it difficult to compare observed position and navigation data to a valid truth source. Moreover, to evaluate system performance with appropriate statistical significance, the reference system against which test results are measured needs to be significantly more accurate than the system under test. Therefore, when the system under test is GPS itself, this poses an interesting problem.
FIGURE 1: CIGTF Reference System (CRS) (Photo: U.S. Air force, 746 Test Squadron)
For more than a decade, the 746th Test Squadron (746 TS), also known as the Central Inertial and GPS Test Facility (CIGTF), has met this requirement by employing its CIGTF Reference System (CRS). The CRS (Figure 1) is a system of navigation sensors that evaluates combinations of its subsystem measurements in an extended Kalman filter/smoother algorithm to produce an optimal reference trajectory. Delivering sub-meter accuracy in non-GPS-jammed environments and meter-level accuracy in GPS-jammed environments, the CRS is arguably the most accurate reference system in the DoD. However, many future DoD weapons systems are projected to require tighter navigation accuracies in GPS-denied environments, and as these requirements improve, the reference system against which they are evaluated must improve accordingly. To meet these test and evaluation reference requirements in a GPS-denied environment, a new reference system is needed.
The 746 TS embarked on the development of the Ultra High Accuracy Reference System (UHARS), a next generation reference system that meets test and evaluation reference requirements for future navigation and guidance systems. UHARS consists of a rack-mounted, tightly integrated system of improved navigation sensors/subsystems, data acquisition system (DAS) and a new post-mission reference trajectory algorithm. The complete system will provide a significantly more accurate reference solution for future airborne and land-based test vehicles in navigation warfare environments where modernized and legacy GPS signals are jammed from friendly or hostile systems.
Non-GPS Based. Achieving these accurate reference solutions requires a Non-GPS Based Positioning System (NGBPS) subsystem capable of operating and providing sub-meter position accuracy in a GPS-denied (jamming) environment. The NGBPS portion of the UHARS program employs a network of ground-based LocataLite transceivers and test vehicle receivers (also called rovers). Although the NGBPS uses standard commercial LocataLites and rovers, meeting the demanding UHARS accuracy and distance requirements of better than 18 centimeters accuracy over a 30-mile range in a flight configuration necessitated some additional testing and development of transmit antennas, external signal amplification, navigational software for flight dynamics, as well as the addition of a centralized command and control (C2) capability so the network could be remotely controlled, across the range, from the 746 TS building at Holloman Air Force Base.
Background
FIGURE 2: UHARS architecture. (Photo: U.S. Air force, 746 Test Squadron)
The UHARS architecture (Figure 2) is comprised of three major subsystems which include the Enhanced Embedded GPS/INS (EGI), Locata NGBPS and GPS Antenna with Antenna Electronics (AE). Other key technologies include the DAS, Differential GPS (DGPS) Base Station and Reference Trajectory Algorithm.
The NGBPS rover collects 10.23 MHz chipped code pseudorange and carrier-phase measurements at selectable rates of 1, 5 and 10 Hz. The system uses a patented timing process which tightly synchronizes all LocataLites in the network. With this done, data from the Locata test bed receiver can be processed exactly like survey-grade GPS measurements, but without the need for differential corrections.
Each LocataLite transmits on two spatially diverse signals from two separate antennas at two frequencies within the 2.4-GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) frequency band, 2434.740 MHz and 2462.361 MHz, for a total of four spatially and frequency diverse signals. That signal structure provides precise positioning signals that are both resistant to GPS L1 and L2 jamming and also provide highly accurate positioning.
Overview
FIGURE 3: Locata solar aluminum transportable trailer (LSATT). (Photo: U.S. Air force, 746 Test Squadron)
The deployed system includes 16 Locata Solar Aluminum Transportable Trailers (LSATT) with flexible power options that integrate both shore power (110V AC) and reusable solar power (Figure 3). The trailer configuration enables easy transportation of major NGBPS components on and off WSMR, allowing for easy reconfiguration of the network or deployment to other test ranges if required.
The NGBPS design currently includes 20 geographically separated deployment sites, 16 of which are populated with LocataLites, over a 20 x 20 mile area on WSMR North Range (see opening figure). This configuration can be scaled to cover an even larger area when required.
FIGURE 4. NGBPS transmitter site. (Photo: U.S. Air force, 746 Test Squadron)
Each site contains permanent monumentation for the two spatially diverse transmit antennas (two monuments per site; 40 total). Figure 4 shows a typical monument site which is equipped with a quadrifilar helix S-band transmit antenna, and one monument also supports the 2.4-GHz receive dish antenna. The monuments and antennas are integrated with an LSATT, UHF-band (350-360 MHz) wireless architecture for the command and control element, and a meteorological (MET) station made by Vaisala. The MET station measures and collects temperature, pressure and relative humidity data,for calculating tropospheric corrections which are then transmitted as part of the positioning signal generated by a LocataLite for use across the network.
FIGURE 5: NGBPS C2 repeater station. (Photo: U.S. Air force, 746 Test Squadron)
The system is operated, controlled and monitored using either the fixed C2 center located at the 746 TS, Holloman AFB, NM or the mobile C2 Center. The mobile C2 is typically located on the WSMR-North Range to support test events. Two repeater stations (Figure 5) are installed at WSMR-North Range to enable long distance remote/wireless C2 communications with the NGBPS network.
Site Architecture
The LSATT includes integrated hardware and software to produce the NGBPS network. The heart of the NGBPS is the LocataLite transceiver, which provides the ranging signals used by the rover to compute position and time information. The same signals are used by each LocataLite for nanosecond-level synchronization across the network. The MET station, mounted on monumentation along with a transmit antenna, collects temperature, pressure and relative humidity data and relays it to the LocataLite for inclusion in the transmitted navigation signal. The LocataLite provides the exciter signal to two Mini-Circuits amplifiers which boost the RF power to around 10 watts for each transmit antenna, providing signal coverage over the large geographical area of WSMR-North Range. The wireless modem relays Locata and MET data to and from the C2 centers using various package compression techniques to ensure data are not lost during transmission. The modem provides 4 watts of power operating in the UHF-Band with a directional high gain antenna.
Situated in the New Mexico desert, the LSATT is also required to operate during extreme weather conditions, necessitating the employment of water-tight containers and temperature reducing mechanisms to protect its commercial subsystems. Accordingly, a filtered fan configuration mitigates elevated temperatures during operation.
Each LSATT also possesses an intelligent low power controller that supports the various communication protocols within the equipment enclosure. A comprehensive and expandable feature of the controller design enables a centralized methodology for data collection, health and status information and C2 functions. The controller interfaces with the LocataLite transceiver, MET station, amplifiers, and power supply sources. Information is collected and packetized for efficient transmission via the wireless modem. Commands from the fixed or mobile C2 center are received and implemented by the controller. During non-operating periods, the controller reduces power consumption by shutting down non-essential equipment. Likewise, the controller itself enters a stand-by mode until reactivated by the C2 center via the wireless modem. The controller provides a redundant data archive capability and autonomously manages operations in the unlikely event of a wireless communication outage with the C2 Centers. The controller is programmed to shut down after a definable period if C2 communication links cannot be re-established.
The NGBPS design provides pre-, live- and post-mission support through remote wireless C2 operations. This support includes real-time status monitoring and a net-centric architecture for C2 of remote locations. As C2 outages are detected, the wireless network autonomously attempts to self-repair and return the network to an operational state.
Verification and Validation
FIGURE 6: A typical NGBPS clear air flight profile. (Photo: U.S. Air force, 746 Test Squadron)
After all network and C2 software activities had been completed, TMC Design Corporation conducted a Final System Verification (FSV) on the fully fielded NGBPS system on WSMR. The FSV ensured all contractual requirements were adequately met prior to release to the 746 TS for government operations. It included verifying successful communication through the UHF network and ensured that the rover could obtain and process information from each LSATT site in view. Additionally, a mission duration test was performed to ensure the system could operate for the period of a standard mission window without depleting the battery system.
Upon completion of the FSV in September 2014, the 746 TS conducted a series of flight tests to:
Measure the NGBPS PDOP over the WSMR fielded area.
Compare the measured PDOP values to the developed PDOP model.
Evaluate carrier-phase solution with an objective accuracy of
FIGURE 7: USAF C-12J aircraft fitted with Locata antenna. (Photo: U.S. Air force, 746 Test Squadron)
Once the squadron’s PDOP model was verified, flight profiles were carefully devised to stay within the NGBPS PDOP < 3 envelope (Figure 6). However, since the 746 TS also sought to evaluate other UHARS components, both individually and as a system, additional flight profiles were flown. When these flight profiles happened to meet NGBPS PDOP criteria, performance was recorded and analyzed. All flight profiles were flown at varying altitudes, aircraft speed and time of day in order to test the NGBPS network performance under a wide range of scenarios.
Although an operational UHARS will ultimately provide an exceptional reference solution in a GPS-denied environment, GPS signals needed to be available during NGBPS validation in order to evaluate the Locata navigation carrier-phase solution against a Differential GPS carrier-phase solution. Thus, all NGBPS validation testing was conducted in clear, unjammed environments. Now that system performance is verified in this NGBPS configuration, it can be used as the primary source of positioning when the GPS signals are denied.
Flight trials were conducted using the USAF C-12J aircraft (Figure 7) integrated with one quadrifilar helix S-band receive antenna. The NGBPS receiver was integrated in the UHARS flight pallet, and a DAS was connected to the receiver to log specific receiver and health data required for post-test data analysis.
FIGURE 8: NGBPS PDOP plot. (Photo: U.S. Air force, 746 Test Squadron)
Figure 8 illustrates the top-down view of the predicted PDOP=3 boundaries across the NGBPS network on WSMR. The PDOP volume coverage is shown in 1000 ft. increments (red lines) from 5K to 30K ft. MSL. The green lines are at 10K, 20K and 30K ft. The flight profiles were flown within the PDOP volume footprint to obtain carrier-phase solutions.
Results
The 746 TS conducted extensive flight tests where the NGBPS system was tested under operationally realistic conditions. Preliminary test results have proven good enough to declare Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for use by the 746 TS’s many DoD and Government customers. Not only does the network deliver centimeter-level positioning and navigation, but also nanosecond-level synchronization, which may be useful for military applications requiring precise time transfer in GPS-denied environments. Working in concert with other UHARS components, the LocataNet supports a reference solution which outperforms the CRS in GPS-denied environments.
“Initial testing shows that UHARS delivers accurate independent PNT as good as, or better than, the USAF’s current CRS, so it is perfectly able to support current customer requirements,” said Jim Brewer, chief scientist of the 746 TS. “However, more data are required to tune the UHARS filter and optimize its accuracy to meet even tighter PNT requirements, which is our objective. When this is achieved, UHARS will deliver truth accuracy for next-generation military capabilities, and we will declare UHARS at Full Operational Capability.”
“UHARS is a rack-mounted, tightly integrated system of improved navigation sensors, a data acquisition system and a new post-mission Kalman filter, all of which need to work together,” explained John Cao, technical director of the 746 TS. “It’s working very well, but once we completely measure and characterize the individual components and then tune and validate the filter, the complete system will provide a significantly more accurate reference solution for future airborne and land-based test vehicles in navigation warfare environments where modernized and legacy GPS signals are jammed from friendly or hostile systems.”
Summary & Conclusions
As designed, deployed, and validated, this tailored network provides accurate 3D positioning, completely independent of GPS and while traveling in a dynamic aircraft flight profile. This enables the US government to test, evaluate, and assess capabilities in GPS-denied environments.
Based on successful results of the original technical demonstration at WSMR in a real-world end-to-end environment, the USAF proceeded to the NGBPS production and fielding phase in 2012.
The currently installed network infrastructure on WSMR includes 20 permanent monument sites, 16 LSATT trailers installed in select initial site locations, comprehensive C2 software and solar and battery power for all sites. The system is self-contained, remotely operated and possesses high quality, reliability and safe operation attributes. Its NGBPS capability is now core to the UHARS that is replacing the CRS.
Initial testing shows that UHARS delivers accurate independent PNT as good as, or better than, the USAF’s current CRS truth system, and the 746 TS has therefore declared Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for UHARS, making it immediately available to support customers requiring an accurate non-GPS-based solution. Further verification testing will enable the squadron to fine tune the UHARS filter and optimize its accuracy even further to meet even tighter PNT requirements. At that time UHARS Full Operational Capability (FOC) will be declared.
Customers interested in leveraging UHARS into their test programs should contact the 746 TS at (575) 679-2123 or [email protected] for scheduling information.
Manufacturers
LocataLites, Locata rovers and the software/firmware that enables the TimeLoc synchronization technology which creates the LocataNet are manufactured and supplied by Locata Corporation. The S-band transmit antenna was made by Cooper Antennas Ltd.
The 746 TS awarded two separate sole-source contracts for NGBPS. The Locata Corporation was contracted to provide production transceivers and rovers, navigation algorithms required for data analysis and subject matter expertise. The TMC Design Corporation was contracted to develop the hardware to house and field the Locata network, develop the command and control hardware and software, and then physically field the production hardware at WSMR.
KEY NGBPS requirements
After successful completion of the technical demonstration in 2011, in which all of these key technical requirements were demonstrated, the USAF awarded contracts to field the NGBPS.
Carrier-phase “truth-reference” solution of < 18 cm Three Dimensional Root Mean Square (3dRMS), with a Position Dilution of Precision (PDOP) < 3.0.
Rover receivers acquiring and tracking Locata signals at a range greater than 30 miles (48 km).
Accurate and reliable TimeLoc synchronization over the test area, the ability to “cascade” TimeLoc from one LocataLite to another, plus the delivery of nanosecond-level synchronized time on the Range while GPS time is unavailable because of GPS jamming.
External signal amplification to support the extended signal range requirement while still maintaining nanosecond-level TimeLoc integrity.
Rover receiver tracking loops perform adequately under flight dynamics.
Tropospheric measurement and modeling to ameliorate the large tropospheric errors (approximately 300 ppm uncorrected) experienced by terrestrial signals at these ranges.
Transmit and receive antennas that provide both adequate gain and multipath mitigation for an aircraft flight scenario.
The Marconi Society has awarded its 2016 Marconi Prize to Bradford Parkinson. The $100,000 prize, given annually, recognizes major advances in the field of information and communication science which benefit humanity.
Parkinson’s contributions to the development of GPS helped create the vast global utility that provides positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) information to the world and is a vital part of today’s global information infrastructure. The early stages of GPS were very nearly derailed and the U.S. Air Force might have abandoned its development had it not been forced to fund it. In a historic decision, the Air Force selected a project leader uniquely qualified to make it a success.
A Bit of History. Lt. General Kenneth Schultz, Space and Missile System Office (SAMSO) Commander, called Colonel Parkinson to his office in November, 1972. The General’s purpose was to discuss a floundering USAF program called 621B, which was attempting to create a global navigation service using satellites. Parkinson wasn’t interested. “I already had a super job with a hundred million dollars of play money every year that I could spend on anything related to ballistic missile re-entry,” he recalls. Meanwhile, the incipient GPS program was mired in technical challenges and in competition with other ideas within the Dept. of Defense.
The General insisted. Parkinson, a rising star and perhaps the top military expert on inertial navigation, had one question. If he accepted the assignment, would he be in charge of it? When the General said, “I can’t promise that,” Parkinson said, “Then I don’t volunteer.”
Fortunately, Schultz went ahead anyway. By the time Parkinson was ten feet out the door, the General had called personnel and initiated his transfer — in the process giving the young colonel the authority he had requested. With sinking heart, Parkinson realized he had inherited a lot of good underlying thinking, but so much infighting that the program had ground to a halt.
Parkinson’s career had prepared him for this project, from his study of navigation at the U.S. Naval Academy to his Master of Science study at MIT, at a time when Charles Draper was making his mark on inertial navigation, to his subsequent PhD research at Stanford University. Parkinson had taught future astronauts about satellite design and operations, and he understood navigation from the inside, as a mission commander flying combat sorties in Southeast Asia.
An Amazing Coincidence. In what Parkinson calls “an amazing coincidence,” Dr. Mal Currie, the senior person in the Dept. of Defense for development, had just been appointed and was moving to Washington from Los Angeles. However, he needed to travel back and forth to Los Angeles for several weekends to organize his family’s move. To make it official, he would stop by the Space and Missile Systems Office for a briefing each weekend. General Schultz soon ran out of top-level discussion topics, so someone had the bright idea to send Dr. Currie down to discuss 621B with Parkinson.
“Here I am, a brand new colonel, given uninterrupted time with the senior-most development leader in the whole Defense Department, about five levels above me, and I have all afternoon. He is brilliant; he is a nuclear physicist. We soon got down to technical stuff. I brought out this big stack of charts and a small projector, using the wall as a screen,” Parkinson remembers. By the end of the afternoon, Parkinson had convinced Currie that GPS was a great idea. It just needed tweaking.
With Currie’s support, Parkinson kept plugging. He requested — and got — some of the brightest minds in the Air Force to help him. He encountered opposition everywhere, even veiled threats. Finally, in August of 1973 he stood before a sea of DoD General officers and officials in Washington. He presented GPS as it then stood, for a thumbs up or down vote. It was thumbs down. The Air Force preferred to build more planes.
Currie, who had chaired the meeting, immediately called Parkinson to his office. “You and I know you inherited this program, but there are some improvements you can make. I’d like you to make those improvements and come right back to another decision meeting,” Currie said.
Lonely Halls Meeting. Parkinson gathered a small group of his brightest team members. They met not in Los Angeles, where the group was based, but in the deserted Pentagon, over Labor Day weekend. The only occupants of the largest office building in the world were Parkinson’s band in a 5th floor conference room.
They worked nonstop to change the proposal. The 621B fundamentals were sound, but several technical details had to be modulated to make it the GPS we know today. The team confirmed the use of the then-unique digital signal structure called code-division multiple-access (CDMA) that had been tested by 621B. This allowed the signals used by all the satellites to broadcast on the same frequency and insured that location precision (eventually to millimeters) could be achieved. Equally important, they decided every satellite had to carry redundant atomic clocks, so that signal timing was accurate even when on the other side of the world. Use of such clocks had been advocated by both 621B and the Navy.
They also confirmed the over-all GPS system concept from 621B: the user would measure the range to four satellites, with knowledge of the exact time they broadcast their signal and their location, then the user could triangulate the receiver’s position as well as determine time to nanoseconds. GPS was built on this premise.
Parkinson went back to Currie with his revised proposal in December 1973, and this time received thumbs up. Just 44 months after contract award the Air Force launched the first GPS satellite — probably a record for any military program. Today, 30 operational GPS satellites circle the planet.
After retiring from military service as an Air Force colonel, Parkinson inspired a new generation of GPS scientists at Stanford, where he is a now a professor of aeronautics and astronautics, and other leading engineering schools, helping push hundreds of enhancements and new applications. At his Research Center, he and his allied faculty and students developed the concept and first demonstration of the FAA’s now-operational GPS integrity system, called WAAS. With his students (and sponsored by John Deere) they demonstrated the first GPS auto-guided farm tractor, now an $800 million world-wide GPS farming business. In 1992 they demonstrated the first completely blind landing of a commercial airline (and repeated it for 110 landings!).
“Today, there are billions of GPS receivers in the world,” says Marconi Society Vice Chairman Vint Cerf, “GPS is one of the most under-rated advances in the history of information science. It’s taken for granted, but Parkinson was on the ground floor of enabling air, space and terrestrial guidance and navigation with GPS. His vision for the use of timing signals resulted in cellular telephone improvements, better Internet traffic control, power grid management and a myriad of important financial applications. Dr. Parkinson’s achievements have been game-changing.”
“With immense dedication, Dr. Parkinson overcame technical and bureaucratic obstacles in order to champion the early development, and later enhancement through modernization, of GPS,” said Dr. Charles Elachi, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We now take for granted GPS technology, whether our phone is providing turn-by-turn directions or enjoying GPS-time-synchronized communications. However, the concept of using an orbiting spacecraft’s transmitting radio signals as a solution for all-weather global navigation (positioning and timing) faced enormous obstacles during its development phase in the 1970s. As the program director for the Air Force, Dr. Parkinson and his fellow engineers were pushing the state of the art.”
Parkinson will receive the Marconi Prize at a private ceremony at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, on November 2, 2016. He joins a select group of scientists whose work in communications and information technology has led to major advances and provided social, economic and cultural benefits for humanity. Past winners of the prize, established in 1975 by Gioia Marconi Braga, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, have included Internet pioneers Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn and Len Kleinrock, digital trailblazers Irwin Jacobs and Henry Samueli, encryption pioneers Ron Rivest, Marty Hellman and Whit Diffie, MIMO inventor A. J. Paulraj and cell phone pioneer Marty Cooper, among others.
GPS World is indebted to Ken Pesyna, a 2015 recipient of the Marconi Society’s Young Scholar award, for bringing this story to our attention. Pesyna co-authored the February 2015 cover story, “Accuracy in the Palm of Your Hand” and is currently CTO and co-founder at Radiosense.
The Marconi Society was established in 1974 through an endowment set up by Gioia Marconi Braga, daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, the Nobel laureate who invented radio (wireless telegraphy). It is best known for the Marconi Prize, awarded annually to an outstanding individual/s whose scope of work and influence emulate the principle of “creativity in service to humanity” that inspired Marconi. Through symposia, conferences, forums and publications, the Marconi Society promotes awareness of major innovations in communication theory, technology and applications with particular attention to understanding how they change and benefit society.
A quality assurance team from the 45th Launch Group off-loads a GPS IIF-12 satellite from a C-17 Globemaster III on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Oct. 8. (U.S. Air Force photo/James Rainier)
The last Air Force GPS IIF in a block of 12 satellites was delivered to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, from Boeing’s manufacturing facility in El Segundo, Calif., Oct. 8 via a C-17 Globemaster III.
A crowd from the government and industry partnership, who will complete the satellite’s final assembly, gathered on the Cape’s “Skid Strip” to watch the off-loading of the satellite they will prepare to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance rocket in 2016.
“This GPS IIF-12 satellite represents the end of a legacy as it will be the last of the 61 GPS satellites processed here at (Cape Canaveral Air Force Station),” said Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, the 45th Space Wing commander. “This culminates an incredible 27-year legacy at our Area 59 Satellite Processing Facility. We are the nation’s premier gateway to space and are humbled to be a part of the team that provides GPS and its capabilities to the world.”
Although there have been other models of GPS launched into space, the Airmen-led processing team at Area 59 is particularly proud to begin preparations to send the last IIF block satellite into orbit. They’ve been behind every launch of the series since the first GPS IIF launched here in May 2010.
“Our combined team’s objective is 100 percent mission success each and every time,” said Col. Eric Krystkowiak, the 45th Launch Group commander. “My Airmen work, in partnership, with Boeing and the system program office at the Space and Missile Systems Center throughout the final stages of satellite processing prior to launch. From spacecraft containerization, shipment from California, the arrival at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Landing Strip, final checkouts, fueling and encapsulation, the team is laser focused on identifying and mitigating any issues that could potentially jeopardize mission success.”
The Boeing-assembled GPS IIF 12 that arrived at the Cape Canaveral will undergo a series of prelaunch preparations, checks and rehearsals. These included functional checkout of the spacecraft, compatibility testing, battery installation, fueling, mating to the payload adapter and obtaining a final flight weight.
Members of the quality assurance team range from young military officers to career enlisted troops and seasoned civilians.
“Mission assurance at the launch base is executed with our ‘triad’ of professionals,” Krystkowiak said. “Our mission assurance technicians are enlisted personnel with many years of experience in missile maintenance who are fully engaged and observe the contractor’s work with the satellite. They bring their hands-on experience, strict technical compliance and discipline to the satellite processing realm. Beside them are our company grade officers and civilian engineers who bring their engineering rigor and innovative ideas into the process. Lastly are our Aerospace Corporation partners who provide invaluable experience and legacy system insight to the team with their continuity of satellite processing. Many of these members have been here at the Cape since GPS first launched in 1989 and achieved full operational capability in 1995.”
A field program manager for the team interfaces with 45th SW leadership, the Air Force SMC and the contracted partners throughout the months in between the satellite’s delivery and its launch.
The Evolved Expendable Launch vehicle is used to launch GPS satellites from Cape Canveral into nearly 11,000-mile circular orbits. While circling the Earth, GPS satellites transmit extremely accurate timing data on multiple L-band frequencies. Design life across the satellite blocks range from 7.5 to 12 years, but many are lasting more than 20 years, with the oldest vehicle turning 25 in November.
The GPS Master Control Station, operated by the 50th SW’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo., is responsible for monitoring and controlling the GPS as a 24-satellite system, consisting of six orbital planes, with a minimum of four satellites per plane. There are currently 39 vehicles in the GPS constellation.
Team Vandenberg launches its first SpaceX launch from Space Launch Complex-4 Sept. 29, 2013. 30th Space Wing’s 1st Air and Space Test Squadron was the lead for all launch site certification activities at Vandenberg for SpaceX as an EELV New Entrant. The squadron evaluated SpaceX’s flight and ground systems, processes and procedures for the upgraded Falcon-9 rocket. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman Yvonne Morales)
The U.S. Air Force has certified SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to launch military satellites, clearing the way for SpaceX to bid on launches of GPS III satellites. The Air Force announced the decision May 26, which completed a nearly two-year process and establishes a competitor to United Launch Alliance.
SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, Calif., is now eligible for award of qualified national security space launch missions as one of two currently certified launch providers. The first upcoming opportunity for SpaceX to compete to provide launch services is projected to be in June when the Air Force releases a Request for Proposal for GPS III launch services.
“This is a very important milestone for the Air Force and the Department of Defense,” said Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James. “SpaceX’s emergence as a viable commercial launch provider provides the opportunity to compete launch services for the first time in almost a decade. Ultimately, leveraging of the commercial space market drives down cost to the American taxpayer and improves our military’s resiliency.”
This milestone is the culmination of a two-year effort on the part of the Air Force and SpaceX to execute the certification process and reintroduce competition into the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. The Air Force invested more than $60 million and 150 people in the certification effort which encompassed 125 certification criteria, including more than 2,800 discrete tasks, three certification flight demonstrations, verifying 160 payload interface requirements, 21 major subsystem reviews and 700 audits in order to establish the technical baseline from which the Air Force will make future flight worthiness determinations for launch.
“The SpaceX and SMC teams have worked hard to achieve certification, said Lieutenant General Samuel Greaves, commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. “And we’re also maintaining our spaceflight worthiness process supporting the National Security Space missions. Our intent is to promote the viability of multiple EELV-class launch providers as soon as feasible.”
“This is an important step toward bringing competition to National Security Space launch. We thank the Air Force for its confidence in us and look forward to serving it well,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and lead designer.
The certification process provides a path for launch-service providers to demonstrate the capability to design, produce, qualify and deliver a new launch system and provide the mission assurance support required to deliver national security space satellites to orbit. This gives the Air Force confidence that the national security satellites being delivered to orbit will safely achieve the intended orbits with full mission capability.
The SMC, located at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., is the U.S. Air Force’s center for acquiring and developing military space systems. Its portfolio includes GPS, military satellite communications, defense meteorological satellites, space launch and range systems, satellite control networks, space based infrared systems and space situational awareness capabilities.
The U.S. Air Force plans to award multiple contracts for companies to demonstrate their ability to build GPS III satellites, according to a report by Mike Gruss of Space News.
The Air Force expects to award the contracts — worth up to $6 million — during this calendar year. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver is the current GPS III satellite contractor, building the first eight GPS III satellites. The first satellite is expected to launch in 2017.
The long-anticipated 2016 President’s Budget (PB) was submitted to Congress in early February. The PB is the spark that ignites the lengthy and often contentious congressional budget process, including: adopting a budget resolution framework, developing numerous discretionary spending bills, reconciling legislation between the House and Senate, approving continuing resolution stop-gap measures and finally, hopefully, appropriating funds for various programs — including the Global Positioning System (GPS) as part of the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) U.S. Air Force (USAF) budget request.
For FY (Fiscal Year 1 Oct – 30 Sep) 2016, the U.S. Air Force requested a topline budget of $122.2 billion in Air Force controlled funding that exceeds funding levels recommended by the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) and laid out in the Budget Control Act by almost $10 billion. Several well-meaning friends still in high places in the government immediately sent me copies of the USAF budget while it was still warm, so to speak, and thought that I would be “properly incensed” — proffered one old friend — over the so-called $10B overdraft. I hate to disappoint my friends, but in the spirit of the USAF policy of putting the Bottom Line Up Front, I applaud the Air Force action and personally think it may be too little, too late. The supplemental request or overdraft should probably have been more on the order of $20B, not $10B.
Hollow Force
This is not an emotional reaction, but a reasoned statement by a seasoned veteran airman of 30 years in the USAF, yours truly, who served through at least two periods of a “hollow force” that were devastating not only to the USAF as an institution, but to the DoD as a whole and to all the personnel who served during these austere and dangerous times. And, yes, I am equating a hollow force with a dangerous force. Indeed, the term “hollow force” officially refers to military and government forces that certainly, on the surface, appear to be “mission ready,” but upon close examination suffer from moderate to severe shortages of personnel and equipment as well as deficiencies, to varying degrees, in training.
Gen Mark A Welsh III, Chief of Staff, USAF, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee 201 (Photo courtesy of USAF – SSG Sean K. Harp).
In recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with his fellow service chiefs, General Mark A. Welsh III, chief of staff of the United States Air Force, laid out the dangers inherent in the hollow force when he stated:
“Last year, our readiness levels reached an all-time low. As we struggle to recover, we don’t have enough units ready to respond immediately to a major contingency, and we’re not always able to provide fully mission-ready units to meet our combatant commanders’ routine rotational requirements.
“The Air Force’s modernization forecasts also are bleak. About 20 percent of [our] aircraft flying today were built in the 1950s and 1960s, and more than half of the rest are 25 years old or older.
“And now, due to sequestration, we’ve cut about 50 percent of our currently planned modernization programs.”
To someone who lived through the hollow force in the past, this is a scary description and prospect for our airmen. In describing the results of budget cuts and difficult decisions regarding program terminations that result in a hollow force, General Welsh put it this way:
“Without these tough calls, the Air Force ‘will be neither ready to fight today, nor viable against the threats of tomorrow’.”
Indeed, a hollow force puts every ones lives in danger. During the post-Vietnam hollow force created by the peanut farmer, there were times when there were B52 aircraft sitting alert just for the spy satellite photo ops that did not have engines in the nacelles nor certified crews to fly them. Aircrews were lucky if they were able to fly four hours per month, and believe me, that made us all less than proficient. I remember one incident specifically. My oxygen (O2) mask had failed on a previous flight and I needed a new one. In the high-performance aircraft in which we flew, regulations required an O2 mask be attached to our helmet and actually in place with crewmembers in the cockpit breathing pure (100%) O2 above a certain altitude. Because of budget cuts, I was issued a waiver, a piece of paper that said I was legal to fly without a fully functioning O2 mask. Fortunately I never was forced to fly without a fully functioning O2 mask, but what if I had been? What if I had passed out from O2 deprivation? What about the other members of the crew? What purpose did the piece of paper serve, other than mollifying a paper pusher’s conscience? Would the Air Force crash investigators have found it in the wreckage and said, “Oh, it’s OK, he had a waiver!” These are the types of things that can happen with a “hollow force.” We don’t need to go there again, and if nothing else, the extra $10B may be just the ticket to keep the aircrews proficient and equipment maintained.
The Color of Money
I know that budgeting and spending other people’s money seems like a simple issue, but with the government, nothing is ever simple. Consequently, the DoD has established an entire university system, known as the Defense Acquisition University (DAU), to train acquisition, program and financial officials in handling government acquisition funds, along with other procurement activities. Under the Budget Control Act guidelines and the Congressional cost-cutting exercise known as Seques-castration, 2016 is another cost-cutting year. That is significant when you understand that the USAF and all of DoD are still reeling from more than ten years of war, on more than one front, along with previously mandated significant budget and manpower cuts that seriously impacted the ability of the USAF to accomplish its multitude of missions.
Consider that budget cuts have a lingering, insidious and costly effect in equipment not maintained or replaced, training not accomplished, R&D not conducted, new technologies not developed, and inevitably the inability to accomplish the mission. A lot of the complexity in these budget-cutting moves relates to what the government refers to as the color of money. For example budgetary funds are appropriated and obligated for the USAF, and most other services, according to the following formula:
O&M – Operations and Maintenance – Obligated for 1 year
MILPERS – Military Personnel – Obligated for 1 year
RDT&E – Res Dev Test & Eval – Obligated for 2 years
PROC – Procurement – Obligated for 3 years
MILCON – Military Construction – Obligated for 5 years
As you can see, all funds are not obligated for just one year and then the money expires. Indeed, there are several colors of money, and failing to fund an RDT&E effort can have catastrophic results on the future of that program and associated programs that might benefit from the technology not developed. At any one time, the USAF is juggling budgets stretching across years and programs and moving money or robbing Peter to pay Paul.
FM (Financial Management) or financial and program management gurus at any one time are managing funds that originated as many as five years previously, plus the current year’s budget, while planning on how to use funds that might carry over to next year. They have just submitted the FY16 budget, which also means they are now hard at work on the FY17 budget without knowing what will be obligated for FY16. Across all those budget years, they have to deal with the arcane rules concerning the color of money. Yes, they are professionals (I’ve been married to one of the best for 35+ years), and they do a great job, but face it — sometimes they are just taking a well-educated guess and hoping for supplemental funding just to meet basic requirements.
Seriously, FM’ers live for the fairytale that one day a combatant commander will say, “Hey, your mission is more important than mine, so I will ‘MIPR’ (a one-time financial move) my funding to your budget line for your project.” Let’s see — a pig is not aerodynamically designed to fly…
Space
Funding for all space programs is especially critical, as the entire space arena is known as a force multiplier, in that satellites and space platforms provide and enable capabilities that increase the effectiveness and reach of all military and government personnel. Therefore, when space programs are not funded, delayed or are cut, the impact ripples across the entire DOD. This is especially true of GPS and PNT (Position, Navigation and Timing) systems which have become so ubiquitous, they are considered a must-have utility for billions of users around the globe, not just the U.S. government. In fact, military and government users may be the smallest segment of users for GPS and PNT services today, which is ironic when you consider that, as General John Hyten (USAF), commander of Air Force Space Command, loves to remind us, “GPS is provided to the world, and over three billion plus users, free of charge 24/7, by the United States Air Force.”
OCX – Next-Generation Space Control Segment
Unfortunately, a couple of major GPS-related programs are in trouble. For OCX, the Next-Generation Control Segment for GPS, my sources tell me, and 2016 budget documents clearly show, that current costs attributable to the prime contractor greatly exceed the contract award specification of ~$886M by a factor of 100% ,with a delivery date still far out on the horizon — somewhere around 2020 with a total program costs of $3.6B. That’s the bad news; the good news is there are definitely sound alternatives, and my sources tell me they are being belatedly explored.
Sometimes the behemoth primes are just that: too big and too expensive. Oftentimes the real subject matter experts (SMEs) reside in the smaller, boutique, more agile companies that can do the job in 24 months for $200M, which is a price that was quoted to me recently by a company with skin in the game, since their software products are responsible for launching and controlling all of the GPS satellites launched in the last eight years without a single failure. Plus, sources inside the company tell me that they have already developed a complete launch and initial checkout system for GPS III, which the OCX prime contractor is still struggling to construct.
This is where the USAF and OSD must step back and assess the OCX program for all its merits versus costs. GPS is not that complicated a satellite system, and yet we are on course to spend $3.6B for a ground C2 (Command and Control) system that will still have significant shortcomings. If it were the perfect C2 system in the end, that would be one consideration, but in fact, as the prime has admitted, it will be far from what was initially envisioned, and the total program costs will have grown by almost 400%.
This scenario begs the question: As the GPS acquisition authority, which product would you trust, a known product derived from a proven government and commercial satellite launch and C2 capability in operation today from a reliable company that has a flawless track record of GPS launches for the last eight years? Or a brand-new unproven product costing billions of dollars from a company that is clearly struggling technically and financially and has, at the end of the day, never launched or controlled a single GPS satellite? The answer seems clear to me. Obviously, there are valid alternatives, and in this budget environment the USAF needs to take a look at replacements, alternatives, supplements and backups, however you choose to phrase it, to OCX.
As we were going to press, we learned that Mr. Kendall has given the OCX Program a green light, but with several caveats indicating the program will be closely watched in the future. Mr. Kendall confirmed that while the OCX costs had indeed doubled, he was going to stay the course for now.
Major General Roger Teague, director of space programs for the Air Force acquisition chief, said a review by chief arms buyer Frank Kendall went well, but program officials and the contractor got “tough marching orders” to stick to schedule and cost targets. That is well and good, but history shows us that it has never happened in the past with the OCX program, and so some tough changes are going to have to be made if they are going to stay on track. We wish them well.
GPS III – Next Generation Space Segment
On the satellite or hardware side of the house, the GPS III — or next-generation GPS satellite — is also having problems, but in this case it centers on development and delivery issues with a subcontractor having serious technical issues and who has failed to deliver on cost or schedule. That subcontractor was just last week bought by a bigger prime, so we will have to wait and see what happens. In this case, however, the whole satellite program is not failing just a component, albeit an important one, the Mission Data Unit or MDU. Although again the answer seems simple, there are bigger forces at play, and one of them is wrapped up in a new government initiative known as Better Buying Power 3.0.
Better Buying Power 3.0
The current GPS III+ budget input states: “In an effort to implement Better Buying Power 3.0 (BBP 3.0) to control production costs, the [U.S.] Air Force intends to create a competitive environment. Options for the GPS III competition continue to be explored by USD (AT&L) [Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics], Mr. Frank Kendall.
Frank Kendall, under secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics; the Under Secretary flag.
The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, or USD (AT&L), is a senior civilian official in the Office of the Secretary of Defense within the Department of Defense. USD (AT&L) is the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary of Defense and the Deputy Secretary of Defense for all matters concerning departmental acquisitions and the general management of the department as a whole, which means he is a significant decision-maker where DoD acquisitions are concerned, and he has something to say about the plans for those acquisitions. Obviously, those plans need to make sense, financially, operationally and hopefully logically. Mr. Kendall, who has been in his current position for almost four years, has brought a much needed common-sense approach to government acquisition, and we can only hope he continues to make judicious, practical and logical decisions.
For GPS III+, the U.S. Air Force’s published notional plan is for a two-phased competition process. Phase one is a Production Readiness competition for up to three firm-fixed price contracts to mature competitors’ production designs for a competition in Phase two. Phase two will be a full and open competition for up to 22 GPS III Production SVs [satellite vehicles] with an expected award in FY17/18. The [U.S.] Air Force GPS Directorate received USD (AT&L) approval to purchase GPS III SV09-10 from the incumbent Lockheed Martin (LMCO) at the December 2014 Defense Acquisition Board (DAB), in order to sustain the GPS constellation while competitive options are pursued.” [Bold added for emphasis.] See the budget document here.
The “government speak” sounds great if you need an entirely new GPS III system, which consists of, at a minimum, a new payload, satellite, launcher and ground C2 system (remember OCX is only designed to work with current and planned GPS SVs, and it doesn’t even do that today). But, in fact, the U.S. government only needs an MDU, which is a critical part of the payload. Indeed, failure to produce the MDU on time has delayed the entire GPS III program by about 18 months to date.
Even more troubling to me is the seemingly innocuous phrases from the government plan that states “create a competitive environment…firm-fixed price contracts to mature [up to three] competitors’ production designs,” which is nothing more than government speak for “We are going to pay competitors to mature their technology so they can compete against the current prime (LMCO), who is currently building the first 10 GPS III satellites.” In effect, the government is saying the competitors on their own cannot compete against LMCO so we, the government, are going to give them contracts and lots of money to help them get to a point where they can compete, and then we are going to have a recompetition. Of course, this is going to take at least three years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and LMCO may well win again in the end, but at least we will have conducted a competition. Does this approach make sense? Does it pass the financial, operational, and logic tests? Does it pass the Washington Post test? I guess we will have to wait and see if Frank Kendall agrees.
BBP 3.0
So, what exactly is the initiative known as Better Buying Power 3.0? It’s DoD’s mandate to “do more with less”:
“DoD’s Mandate To Do More Without More
“Better Buying Power (BBP) is the implementation of best practices to hopefully strengthen the Defense Department’s buying power, improve industry productivity, and provide an affordable, value-added military capability for the warfighter and government user. Launched in 2010, BBP encompasses a set of fundamental acquisition principles to achieve greater efficiencies through affordability, cost control, elimination of unproductive processes and bureaucracy, and promotion of competition. BBP initiatives also incentivize productivity and innovation in industry and Government, and improve tradecraft in the acquisition of services.”
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Now for the rest of the story.
We can all agree that defense budgets are tight, so it will be interesting to see how BBP 3.0 plays out in the arena for GPS SVs. Will the U.S. Air Force initiate a competition to acquire an entirely new GPS III SV, or fix the problem with the current GPS III program, the MDU? Recall my previous column concerning the GPS III Sources Sought, in which the GPS III MDU was compared to an aircraft engine and the GPS III satellite was compared to an aircraft. In this analogy, the Air Force didn’t ask for companies/competitors to produce a new aircraft just because it needed an alternate engine. It simply contracted for another engine supplier — the most cost-effective competition that adheres to the principles of BBP 3.0. However, from the GPS Directorate budget language quoted earlier, it appears as if the Air Force is looking to pursue an entirely new GPS III system to include SVs, rather than just procure an alternate MDU.
In my humble opinion, stringently applying BBP 3.0 to GPS III issues means simply to employ competition at the correct level (i.e., for the engine rather than the entire aircraft). An interesting feature and significant added cost to the GPS budget, which I briefly mentioned earlier, concerns the need for a new ground C2 system if the total new systems approach is taken. For, indeed, if preliminary elements of the GPS space segment are developed without cross-checking the impact to the GPS control segment, the technical, operational, budgetary and schedule impacts will be significant. For example, the already troubled next-generation GPS ground control system, OCX, budget likely has not considered the integration costs of a newly developed, yet-to-be-procured “production ready” GPS III+ SV. Indeed, OCX today is geared for the GPS III already contracted for and it is failing to meet that challenge in a spectacular and expensive way. So it is possible, even probable, that OCX integration costs for yet another new model of GPS III family of satellites would increase the OCX budget significantly…unless of course one assumes that the U.S. Air Force acquires a perfectly matched, new GPS III satellite that integrates seamlessly with OCX. In other words, an entirely new GPS III SV would need to be perfectly matched to the current GPS III SV — and what are the chances of that, and why would you spend hundreds of millions of scarce acquisition dollars to procure an exact and more expensive replica?
Budget constraints are tight and getting tighter. BBP 3.0 mandates the Air Force “do more with less” in every context. For GPS III SVs, this means developing an alternate MDU rather than buying a new block of GPS SVs.
Until next time, Happy Navigating, and remember: GPS is brought to you free of charge by the United States Air Force.
The ground control system (OCX) that Raytheon is developing for the next-generation GPS program has passed a Pentagon review, reports Reuters. The program will be monitored to ensure it stays on track, a senior Air Force official said on Feb. 6 as reported by the news service.
Major General Roger Teague, director of space programs for the Air Force acquisition chief, said a review by chief arms buyer Frank Kendall went well, but program officials and the contractor got “tough marching orders” to stick to schedule and cost targets.
Raytheon’s program manager Matt Gilligan said the review provided the company with “clear direction, the best technology, and appropriate resources to…deliver OCX on a schedule that meets GPS enterprise needs.”
Kendall had ordered the review after an Air Force restructuring that increased the cost of the program by 80 percent to $1.6 billion.
