Air Force Working on Glitch for GPS IIF Satellites

The U.S. Air Force is working to resolve a technical error that affected some Boeing GPS satellites, according to a report by Reuters.

The error does not affect the accuracy of GPS signals. It involves the ground-based software used to index some messages transmitted by GPS IIF satellites built by Boeing, Air Force Space Command said according to Reuters. Still, officials are investigating other possible causes.

Lockheed Martin runs the GPS ground control segment, which enables Air Force officials to operate all GPS satellites, including the IIF satellites built by Boeing.

Air Force Space Command Public Affairs released the following statement:

“A GPS message indexing issue was recently identified that affects a limited number of active GPS IIF satellites, but does not degrade the accuracy of the GPS signal received by users around the globe. The result is an occasional broadcast not in accordance with U.S. technical specifications. The issue appears to be related to the ground software that builds and uploads messages transmitted by the GPS constellation during regular system operations, although the Air Force continues to investigate all possible causes.

“Although the issue was brought to light in the last few days, a close examination of archived GPS message data reveals that the message indexing error has gone unnoticed since 2013. Air Force Space Command has implemented a workaround to prevent further message indexing violations and is taking steps to permanently correct the error.”

The U.S. Air Force will be launching the ninth Boeing Block IIF satellite on Wednesday.