Lockheed Martin announced last week that the GPS III team it is leading had “successfully completed the Preliminary Design Review stage,” enabling the team to begin the Critical Design Review phase. Teaming with Lockheed on the next-generation Global Positioning System III satellite program is ITT and General Dynamics. “The quality of the PDR demonstrates the maturity of our design, our readiness to enter the next development phase, and the entire team’s dedication to keeping the GPS constellation strong,” said Dave Podlesney, Lockheed’s GPS III program director. A $3 billion development and production contract awarded in May 2008 calls for Lockheed to produce up to 12 GPS III Block A satellites (see above “No ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Here”) with projected first launch in 2014.
Unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous aircraft may provide a solution to operating in heavily contested domains such as the Taiwan Straits, according to a panel of expert who suggested operationalizing artificial intelligence for such purposes sooner rather than later. The group gathered virtually to help launch the Mitchell Institute for…