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Lockheed Martin has announced they have begun building two GPS III satellites; the third and fourth satellites out of the 10 promised by the company in a contract with the US Air Force, who hopes to build a total of 32 GPS III satellites. These satellites will bring Lockheed Martin $238 million.

The contract was designed to expand the GPS system in order to keep up with technological changes and advances, and promises users greater accuracy and anti-jamming features. A second civilian-use signal will be added which will greatly improve the speed with which a GPS device locks on to a position. A new military signal will also be introduced, helping these lines remain secure and offering reliability against jamming.

According to Col. Bernie Gruber, director of the US Air Force’s Global Positioning Systems Directorate, “GPS is a global gold standard, providing accurate, reliable, continuous, free worldwide positioning, navigation, and timing services…and we are focused on delivering world-class space-based PNT capabilities to our users around the world. As the need for more capability increases, GPS III will allow us to affordably sustain and modernize the constellation by providing increased capabilities incrementally to better meet current and future needs.”

Mark Valerio, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Surveillance and Navigation Systems said, “The government has mapped an extremely sensible acquisition strategy for GPS III and we are focusing on executing the program to deliver these much needed capabilities to billions of users around the world. As we produce more GPS III satellites, we aim to continually reduce the cost and cycle time of each space vehicle to ensure we deliver the greatest value to the Air Force.” They have proven themselves to be perfect for the task with current satellites already in the constellation. The existing GPS IIR and IIR-M models have a 99.9 percent reliability record after over 18 years in orbit.

The two new GPS III satellites are being built in concert with one another to make the manufacturing process more efficient, according to Lockheed. The system is set for first launch in 2014.