Why Resilient GPS (R-GPS) Matters for US Military Superiority: We Must Address GPS Vulnerabilities

GPS is not only a cornerstone to our military superiority, it is foundational to our national and global economic stability. In fact, analysts warn that GPS outages could cost our economy $1 billion per day. Once the world’s sole global navigation satellite system, GPS now competes with international alternatives. While the U.S. continues investing in GPS modernization, other nations have been more aggressive in adopting new technologies and expanding their satellite networks.

Recently, our adversaries have deployed sophisticated efforts to disrupt, deny and degrade U.S. Precision, Navigation and Timing (PNT) advantages. The conflict in Ukraine offers a sobering wake-up call where advanced electronic warfare capabilities have effectively degraded or denied GPS-guided weapons and unmanned vehicles. This isn’t a theoretical threat – it’s happening today, and if we want to dominate on the battlefield, we will need to have a PNT solution that is seamless and adaptive.

R-GPS: A Seamless and Adaptive Solution

The U.S. Space Force’s Resilient GPS (R-GPS) offers a straightforward solution to mitigate our adversaries’ efforts to deny our warfighters PNT. By quickly deploying a proliferated constellation of adaptable satellites in the same orbit as GPS, we can deliver enhanced M-Code power levels where and when warfighters need them most, ensuring they have access to trusted, jam-resistant PNT signals even in the most challenging electromagnetic environments.

Historically, upgrades to GPS have been costly and time-consuming, often taking decades to deploy. By contrast, R-GPS supplements the investments made in modernizing and enhancing GPS infrastructure while addressing new requirements on an accelerated timeline that aligns with today’s commercial satellite schedules.

R-GPS will be compatible with deployed M-Code user equipment and require minimal changes to the existing operational control segment. R-GPS is essential for providing a resilient operational M-Code and to ensure M-Code equipment remains usable in the face of adversary threats. This effort must be done simultaneously with the rapid deployment of M-Code receivers.

Fast, Flexible, Future-Ready

This R-GPS design allows for the rapid deployment of a full constellation of satellites with the latest design features in just three launches, significantly outpacing the single satellite launches supporting GPS. This would allow the U.S. Space Force to quickly field and, if required, reconstitute our PNT architecture with the latest available technologies to address ever-evolving threats.  

Some have questioned whether the R-GPS program is necessary when our current GPS constellation is healthy. But here’s the reality: We will not have Regional Military Power levels until GPS IIIF launches in 2027, and at the current launch pace, it would take two decades to match R-GPS’s multi-vehicle, high-power capability.

While some have advocated for alternative navigation methods like magnetic or terrestrial mapping, these approaches face significant limitations. They lack the necessary infrastructure for widespread deployment, perform poorly in certain environmental conditions, and cannot match satellite navigation’s accuracy and reliability. In addition, once these technologies are mature, it will take 7-10 years to field them on platforms.

Advocates for these alternative methods often overlook these limitations when arguing against investments in satellite navigation resiliency. Increasing satellite transmit power has been proven to reduce jammer effectiveness and is a low-risk augmentation available using today’s technology.

Rendering of 24 L3Harris Resilient GPS satellites being deployed, compared to a traditional GPS (Image credit: L3Harris)

Respond, Deter and Deliver

Delivering resilient space-based PNT to our warfighters at the leading edge will require bold decisions by our leaders today.

We need to leverage the expertise of the workforce and government and industry investments in technology like the NTS-3 reprogrammable payload and active electronically steerable phased array antenna, along with the L3Harris reprogrammable space crypto, which is in its final stages of certification. Let’s take advantage of having this critical technology available today to deliver tomorrow’s GPS capabilities.

Our nation must boost its resiliency against an attack on our crucial PNT systems by rapidly deploying R-GPS to augment the current GPS constellation. Fielding R-GPS will support national priorities like Golden Dome and serve as a powerful deterrent to any adversary considering targeting our PNT architecture in the future.

L3Harris is ready to work with the U.S. Space Force now to modernize and enhance our nation’s PNT infrastructure.

Written by Jeff Hanke, Space Systems President, Space and Airborne Systems, L3Harris Technologies