Recent action by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has advanced a Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11) Defense spending bill (S. 3800) that essentially accepts the GPS elements of President Obama’s budget proposal, including $40.9 million for the high-integrity GPS (HIGPS) demonstration project.
Recent action by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has advanced a Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11) Defense spending bill (S. 3800) that essentially accepts the GPS elements of President Obama’s budget proposal, including $40.9 million for the high-integrity GPS (HIGPS) demonstration project.
As proposed by the White House and approved by the Senate committee on September 16, S. 3800 includes $1.057 billion for GPS operations, including $35.471 million for GPS IIF and Operational Control Segment (OCS) development, $828.171 million for GPS IIIA and Next-Generation Operational Control Segment, $122.490 million for advanced procurement of GPS IIIA satellites, $64.609 million for procurement of GPS IIF satellites and launch support, and $7.736 million for ground segment equipment procurement.
Also known as iGPS because of its use of the Iridium communications satellite system, the HIGPS program is operating under a three-year, $153.5-million contract to the Boeing Company funded by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).
The program is developing techniques that enable faster acquisition (time to first fix or TTFF) of GPS satellite signals in adverse operating environments, including those with RF interference or urban settings. The i-GPS architecture involves high-precision time transfer of GPS time and its rebroadcast over the higher powered Iridium communications channels.
The defense appropriations measure still needs to gain the approval of the full Senate, which will need to reconcile it with the FY11 defense authorization bill that does not include HIGPS funding, as well as the House version of defense spending that has not yet passed the full appropriations committee in that chamber. Last year, the House cut $59.1 million that Obama had requested for the HIGPS program in the FY10 budget.
