Congressional Budget Office Issues Report on GPS for Defense
November 3, 2011 
The Congressional Budget Office has issued a report titled "The Global Positioning System for Military Users: Current Modernization Plans and Alternatives." To download a PDF of the report, click here.
The report discusses options that would provide anti-jamming improvements primarily for handheld receivers used by the Army an Marines, and compared these options to ones proposed by the Department of Defense. The report summary describes the options as:
- Option 1 would improve current military GPS receivers by fitting them with better antennas and by adding inertial navigation systems.
- Option 2 would capitalize on a DoD research and development program by enabling current GPS receivers to integrate information received via the Iridium commercial communications satellite network.
- Option 3 would include the improvements of both Option 1 and Option 2.
The report continues, "Three items are common to all of the options. First, under each option, DoD would purchase 40 GPS III satellites (the same number as in DoD’s plan) but confine those purchases to the IIIA model. Second, under DoD’s
plan as well as all the options, DoD would continue to develop the ground control system, enabling it to control current M-code-transmitting GPS satellites (IIR-M and IIF) as well as the newer GPS IIIA satellites. And third, DoD would develop and purchase M-code-capable receivers in the same numbers under its plan and all three options. By CBO’s estimates, the total cost for those three common items is $17.9 billion from 2012 through 2025 — which is the amount to maintain, modernize, and control the GPS constellation through 2030 and to field military receivers that can take full advantage of the M-code signal.
"All three options would cost less to carry out than DoD’s plan and would yield military receivers with greater antijamming capability earlier. CBO’s options would not yield similar benefits for civilian users as DoD’s plan, and they would forgo some improvements in accuracy for all users offered by the GPS IIIC satellites. Because all three options would cancel the IIIB and IIIC portions of the GPS III program, they would save more than $4 billion on satellite and ground control costs from 2012 through 2025, CBO estimates. Those savings would be partly offset by the cost to make improvements to the receivers under the three options, yielding net savings of approximately
$2 billion, $3 billion, and slightly more than $1 billion, respectively, for Options 1, 2, and 3."
Contributing Editor Don Jewell will discuss the report in his next Defense PNT newsletter, coming later this month.
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