Image: USAF
What’s new: An appropriations report accompanying the DOD funding bill that outlines how GPS and PNT money is to be spent.
Why it is important: Where Congress puts various amounts of money, and what they say about it, indicates what they are thinking, and to some extent, what can and must be done.
What else to know: There are some interesting things in the report. There is some info in the article below, but you’ll enjoy the hunt for other nuggets. Search on “GPS” and/or “PNT” to find them. 🙂 Here is the link to the report.
As Space Force wraps up GPS III launches, lawmakers push for more anti-jam capability
Meanwhile, House and Senate appropriators are foot-stomping the need for improvements to the GPS constellation and new, resilient alternatives.
WASHINGTON — As the Space Force nears launch of the final satellite in the current GPS III configuration for its venerable Global Positioning System constellation, congressional budgetmeisters are pushing the service to speed up improvements and launch new satellites that can better withstand growing adversary jamming and spoofing threats.
After two days of weather-related delays, the ninth, and penultimate, GPS III bird launched Tuesday night at 11:53 pm EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9. GPS III SV09 was originally slated to go up on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket in December 2025, but due to delays in the rocket’s National Security Space Launch certification, the Space Force shifted the manifest to SpaceX in December 2024.
The final GPS III satellite is slated to launch in March, Col. Neil Barnas, commander of the Space Systems Command’s System Delta 831 responsible for developing GPS improvements, told reporters Friday.
