New GPS support deal for Lockheed

• Tweet

COLORADO SPRINGS, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The ground control segment of the GPS satellite constellation used by the U.S. Air Force is will be sustained until 2019 by Lockheed Martin.

The new contract from the U.S. Air Force Space Command Space and Missile Center is worth $100 million and continues Lockheed's more than 30 years of support for the global positioning system.

"Lockheed Martin is committed to sustaining the ground system for this critical mission," said Rob Smith, vice president of Space & Cyber for Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions-Defense. "We'll mirror our past successful performance to ensure that GPS continues providing reliable, worldwide positioning and navigation services to meet the burgeoning demand from strategic and tactical users worldwide."

Under the award, Lockheed will provide organizational and depot sustainment support in the areas of command-and-control ground systems, systems engineering, hardware and communications engineering, space vehicle and ground equipment simulation, software testing and hardware maintenance.

The services will enable the Air Force Space Command 2nd Space Operations Squadron to perform on-orbit operational control of the GPS satellites.

Lockheed's team for performing the work will include Arctic Slope Research Corporation, ISYS Technologies, Overlook Systems Technologies and Tigua Technology Services.