Comments on: Lockheed gets greenlight for GPS III satellites

The defense contractor wins a $1.4 billion contract from the U.S. Air Force to build the next generation of navigation satellites, set to be more accurate and more resistant to jamming.

[CharlieGill]

The statements "relaying signals to and from your Garmin" and "they'll certainly need to be able to handle a heavy traffic load" are inaccurate. The GPS system is one way so far as your handheld is concerned. The satellites do receive control information from the ground but not from your navigation unit or cell phone. The GPS satellites are no more affected by the number of users in service than a FM radio station is affected by how many receivers are tuned to it. Please research your articles better.
Charlie

[Jon Skillings]

Thanks for the catches. The poor phrasing has been cleaned up.

[Markeh1]

Prehaps you should pay more attention to the underlaying message or the purpose of the article. The thought behind this is to illustrate the emergance of next generation satellites, not where the information is coming from. Please read more carefully. Markeh

[garydavis223]

Charlie's comment is correct. I am personally interested in exactly what the III series bring to the table for civilians that the II series don't offer? Greater accuracy means what... position/speed/elevation? How much greater? Better coverage? Better penetration of structures to, for example, read signals while indoors or in tunnels? This article is more like a PR piece for Lockeed than anything which sheds light on benefits in a useful way. GD

[berend_engelbrecht]

There are 3 major improvements:
1. GPS III will give new navigation warfare (NAVWAR) capabilities to shut off GPS service to a limited geographical location while providing GPS to US and allied forces.
2. The weak signal strength should be a thing of the past. GPS IIIA offers up to a ten-fold increase in signal power compared to GPS IIF. The next-generation GPS III system is expected to have about 500 times the transmitter power of the current system
3. They feel the heat of the competition. GPS III will have a new civil signal compatible with the European Union?s Galileo system and the accuracy of the civil service should improve to 3-5 meters [http://i.e., comparable to the free version of the galileo signal|http://i.e., comparable to the free version of the galileo signal].