Lockheed Martin Delivers Antenna Assemblies For Integration On First GPS III Satellite

Lockheed Martin has completed and is preparing to install the navigation, communication, and hosted payload antenna assemblies for the first satellite of the next generation Global Positioning System, known as GPS III.

Seven antenna assemblies, produced at Lockheed Martin's Newtown, Pa. facility, were delivered to the company's GPS III Processing Facility (GPF) near Denver, Colo. on June 14. The antennas will be installed on the first GPS III space vehicle (SV 01), which Lockheed Martin will deliver to the U.S. Air Force on schedule, "flight-ready," in 2014.

The new antennas for GPS III SV 01 will provide the satellite's capability to send and/or receive data for earth-coverage and military earth-coverage navigation; a UHF crosslink for inter-satellite data transfer; telemetry, tracking and control for satellite-ground communications; and data acquisition and communication for the nuclear detection system hosted payload. The antenna designs enable three to eight times greater anti-jamming signal power to be broadcast to military users across the globe when compared to previous GPS generations.