Darwin McDaniel
Lockheed Martin has awarded Harris a $243M contract to produce digital navigation payloads for the U.S. Air Force’s first two Global Positioning System III follow-on satellites.
Harris said Tuesday it will provide fully digital Mission Data Units designed to facilitate signals processing on the GPS IIIF satellites and help the service branch transition to an updated OCX ground control segment.
In September, Lockheed received a potential $7.2B follow-on contract to manufacture an additional 22 space vehicles.
The Air Force expects the Bethesda, Md.-based company to complete the first GPS IIIF spacecraft, dubbed SV11, for a possible launch in 2026.
Harris serves as the navigation signal partner of Lockheed under the follow-on program.
The first GPS III navigation payload aboard GPS III SV01, which lifted off in December 2018, began transmitting navigation signals on Jan. 8.
