Don't throw away your paper charts! - GPS failings to come

12:07 AM Sat 16 May 2009 GMT

'Projected effect of satellite launch delays' .

A report just out by the Government Accountability Office(GAO) of the USA has revealed significant issues with the future of the GPS world wide system, currently provided free by the USA. The report is entitled 'Significant Challenges in Sustaining and Upgrading Widely Used Capabilities' and was released last week.

The GAO was asked to do the study because of the crucial role that GPS plays in national security, apart from the key tool in commercial applications, including world wide shipping. While the air force is in the process of modernising the system, including the acquisition of GPS satellites and the associated ground control systems, the report casts doubt on their ability to carry out this process in a way that will maintain full efficiency.

The report, which is very lengthy, goes on to describe how the likely efficiency of the system will drop significantly in the coming years before suitable satellite modernisation has taken place.

Their report states:

Satellites not sufficient for the job? - .. .

It is uncertain whether the Air Force will be able to acquire new
satellites in time to maintain current GPS service without
interruption. If not, some military operations and some civilian users
could be adversely affected.

* In recent years, the Air Force has struggled to successfully build
GPS satellites within cost and schedule goals; it encountered
significant technical problems that still threaten its delivery
schedule; and it struggled with a different contractor. As a result,
the current IIF satellite program has overrun its original cost
estimate by about $870 million and the launch of its first satellite
has been delayed to November 2009-almost 3 years late.

* Further, while the Air Force is structuring the new GPS IIIA program
to prevent mistakes made on the IIF program, the Air Force is aiming to
deploy the next generation of GPS satellites 3 years faster than the
IIF satellites. GAO's analysis found that this schedule is optimistic,
given the program's late start, past trends in space acquisitions, and
challenges facing the new contractor. Of particular concern is
leadership for GPS acquisition, as GAO and other studies have found the
lack of a single point of authority for space programs and frequent
turnover in program managers have hampered requirements setting,
funding stability, and resource allocation.

* If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of
GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in
2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation
will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level
of GPS service that the U.S. government commits to. Such a gap in
capability could have wide-ranging impacts on all GPS users, though
there are measures the Air Force and others can take to plan for and
minimize these impacts.

In addition to risks facing the acquisition of new GPS satellites, the
Air Force has not been fully successful in synchronizing the
acquisition and development of the next generation of GPS satellites
with the ground control and user equipment, thereby delaying the
ability of military users to fully utilize new GPS satellite
capabilities. Diffuse leadership has been a contributing factor, given
that there is no single authority responsible for synchronizing all
procurements and fielding related to GPS, and funding has been diverted
from ground programs to pay for problems in the space segment.

DOD and others involved in ensuring GPS can serve communities beyond
the military have taken prudent steps to manage requirements and
coordinate among the many organizations involved with GPS. However, GAO
identified challenges to ensuring civilian requirements and ensuring
GPS compatibility with other new, potentially competing global space-
based positioning, navigation, and timing systems.

What GAO Recommends:

GAO's recommendations include that the Secretary of Defense appoint a
single authority to oversee development of GPS space, ground control,
and user equipment assets, to ensure they are synchronized, well
executed, and potential disruptions are minimized. DOD concurred with
our recommendations.

For the full report, click here, and for a link to an Inside GNSS article, click here

by Blackwattle Studios