![]()
- China Overcapacity Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- Investing in Good Karma – and Making a Profit
- UK Banks Must Disclose Top Pay: Review
- Black Friday to Avoid Red Ink; Greenback Gets the Blues
- Bankruptcies Jump, Hitting Highest Level in Four Years
- Steepest Black Friday Discounts, Revealed
- Fed to Counsel Moviegoers on How to Use Credit Cards
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
MOST SHARED
- The Executive Job Search
- Chinese Overcapacity is Worsening, EU Chamber Warns
- Where Do Pardoned Turkeys Go?
- US Mint to Suspend American Eagle Gold 1-Ounce Coins
- Salvation Army's Kettles Now Credit Card-Ready
- Activision Prepares to Double Dip on ‘Modern Warfare 2’
- Trader Talk
- Topless Business Is Taking Off
- The 'Real' Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed
Lockheed Martin won a potential $3.6 billion contract to start building a new generation of global positioning satellites that will boost accuracy for worldwide users, the Air Force said Thursday.
![]() |
Lockheed [LMT
Loading...
()
], the Pentagon's No. 1 supplier by sales, beat Boeing [BA
Loading...
()
], the No. 2 supplier, to supply the first batch of satellites in the new Global Positioning System, known as GPS III.
GPS satellites, in one of six Earth orbits, circle the globe every 12 hours beaming precision navigation and timing signals. They are used for everything from mapping to business transaction authentication to precision weapons.
The system is operated by the Air Force Space Command for the U.S. Defense Department, which makes the signal available worldwide for free.
The first of the new GPS III satellites is scheduled for launch in early 2014, Col. Dave Madden, head of the Space Command's Global Positioning System wing, said in a teleconference. Ultimately, the new network is due to include 32 satellites.
Lockheed's initial contact was for two "research and development" craft valued at $1.46 billion, the Air Force said. If the government exercises its options to buy 10 more, the deal would be worth roughly $3.6 billion, Madden said.
The Air Force plans to stick with Lockheed as the supplier of future GPS III satellites but retains the option to hold a new competition for two follow-on batches, he said.
GPS III satellites will feature greater signal power than previous configurations, boosting resistance to jamming, perceived as a growing threat.
The new network will incorporate a civil signal compatible with the European Union's planned Galileo system as well as a military signal called the M-code for the stepped-up anti-jamming capability.
Eventually, the constellation will be cross-linked, meaning it can recalibrate itself through updates from a single ground station instead of waiting for each satellite to pass in view of a ground antenna.
The current network is said to be accurate enough to pinpoint a user's location anywhere on earth within about nine feet. This will improve to about three feet as new satellites replace the old ones.
After 18 of the new GPS III satellites are in operation in 2019 or so, accuracy could be as sharp as nine inches, depending on the quality of the receiver, said Col. Mark Crews, the system's chief engineer.
Lockheed's chief subcontractors on GPS III are ITT [ITT
Loading...
()
] and General Dynamics [GD
Loading...
()
].
- For nearly three decades, these on-call experts have been dishing advice on how to – and not to – cook turkey.
- Eric Schmidt pledges to create a virtual copy of the Iraq National Museum at Google’s expense.
- Bill Griffeth is taking a leave of absence from CNBC and Power Lunch for a year. Here's a message from Bill.
- More shoppers than ever plan to comparison-shop this season. Who will benefit?
- It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
- How can you get out of debt and back on the road to recovery? Follow these ten steps.













