Image: USAF 2d Lt Jacob Lutz AFRL RV
Blog Editor’s Note: Good to see the possibility of the US military adopting some of these improvements. Of course, we can’t have an optimistic note without adding some concerns:
- We hope these upgrades survive the programmatic “valley of death” in which many (if not most) great capabilities developed during experimentation fail to get funded and turned into real equipment warfighters use.
- This project would be especially good if it was paired with a non-space-based capability since our adversaries have shown impressive abilities denying signals from space.
- 99.9% of GPS users are not in the military. What about them? Even if we are just worrying about military capability, what about all the civil users who support military operations, training, maintaining, and equipage in some way as contractors, suppliers, etc.? – The USA could use a more holistic approach to national security and strength.
NTS-3 Experiment Offers Possibility of Adopting GPS/PNT Protection In Existing Production Lines
By Frank Wolfe |
04/06/2022
Next March’s planned launch of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) 1,100 pound experimental Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) offers the potential for the U.S. Space Force to adopt advanced protection technologies for GPS and positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems, a U.S. Space Force official said on Apr. 6.
“We are watching NTS-3 very closely,” Cordell DeLaPeña, Space Systems Command’s program executive officer of military communications and PNT, said during a press conference at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I think that has high utility for incorporating high TRL [technology readiness level], low-risk capabilities into our existing production lines, as well as an opportunity to expand the architecture.”
