Lockheed Martin presses case that GPS upgrade will counter jamming threats

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin is stepping up its argument that the U.S. military’s GPS constellation is becoming more resilient, even as military leaders warn publicly about rising jamming and spoofing threats and lawmakers debate alternatives to satellite-based positioning, navigation and timing.

A series of upgrades in the next generation of satellites, known as GPS III Follow-On, or GPS IIIF, amount to a “game changer” in addressing interference challenges, said Malik Musawwir, vice president of navigation systems at Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for GPS satellites operated by the U.S. Space Force.

“Once we start introducing GPS IIIF satellites into the active constellation that we’re operating today, we believe that that will change the landscape dramatically,” Musawwir said Feb. 23 at a news conference in Aurora, Colorado, during the Air & Space Forces Association’s Warfare Symposium.

The comments come as GPS — long treated as foundational infrastructure for military and civilian users alike — is increasingly viewed as vulnerable to disruption. Jamming and spoofing incidents have proliferated in conflict zones and near sensitive borders, prompting calls for complementary or alternative forms of PNT, including other satellite constellations and terrestrial systems.

Next-gen satellites in production

The Space Force’s current on-orbit modernization effort centers on GPS III. The service bought 10 of those satellites; nine have launched. They broadcast M-code, the military’s encrypted GPS signal designed to provide more secure, jam-resistant PNT. An urgency to expand M-code coverage led the Space Force to accelerate launches of satellites 7, 8 and 9 and shift those missions from United Launch Alliance to SpaceX.

GPS IIIF builds on that foundation. Under a 2018 contract that allows for up to 22 spacecraft, the Space Force has exercised options for 12 satellites, bringing the contract’s value to $4.1 billion. The most recent satellites are priced at roughly $250 million each. The Pentagon did not request additional IIIF funding in its fiscal 2026 budget, but Congress added $528 million for two more satellites.

The 12 satellites on order are in various stages of production, Musawwir said. Like GPS III, they will transmit M-code. They will also introduce new operational features, though they do not add new frequency bands beyond those already in use.

The most significant addition is Regional Military Protection, or RMP. Earlier generations of GPS satellites broadcast signals in a wide pattern covering the visible Earth at modest power levels. GPS III increased that power compared with older Block IIF satellites. GPS IIIF goes further by allowing the satellite to focus its encrypted M-code energy into a specific region through a high-gain spot beam.

By concentrating energy rather than distributing it globally, the satellite increases the effective signal strength seen by military users in that theater. A stronger signal forces an adversary to use more powerful and closer jammers to deny service.

“That will dramatically change the calculus of how close, for example, jammers will have to be to the people that are trying to jam, the signal strength necessary to be able to provide a jamming signal that could thwart a GPS signal,” Musawwir said. “I wouldn’t pretend to have clear, crystal clarity to what the future may bring,” but he added that the new features “will make a huge difference.”

The satellites will also carry a search-and-rescue payload capable of detecting distress beacons from users on land, at sea or in the air and relaying their location to authorities. That capability is intended to reduce the time needed to locate people in distress.

Beyond radio-frequency upgrades, Lockheed and the Space Force are exploring optical communications. The final GPS III satellite, number 10, will carry a Tesat-Spacecom SCOT80 optical terminal for a space-to-ground laser communications demonstration. The terminal can support data rates of up to about 100 gigabits per second, though GPS does not require that level of throughput.

“The idea is that this will lay the foundation for what future GPS to GPS, or perhaps GPS to other orbits in the constellations, could do with optical crosslink technology,” Musawwir said.

For now, the optical payload is a one-off experiment. Whether future GPS IIIF satellites include laser terminals will depend on government decisions, he said. “It really is going to come down to our government customers and their interest in trying to advance certain capabilities on the constellation.”

If adopted more broadly, optical links could work with the satellites’ fully digital navigation payload to allow greater flexibility in how signals are generated and managed on orbit, including potential upgrades without redesigning hardware.