A permanent fix is being distributed to resolve the software glitch that left some military equipment unable to lock onto Global Positioning System navigation signals after the Air Force updated GPS ground control software back in January. The Associated Press reported Monday (via the Los Angeles Times) that a temporary fix had already been installed in these GPS receivers and now the permanent fix is being instituted. It cited an Air Force spokesman. Air Force Space Command boss Gen. Robert Kehler acknowledged in February that “a handful” of receivers across the US military did not function properly after the upgrade due to a problem with the receivers—not the ground control software. According to AP, this issue had caused the Navy to temporarily halt operations on one of its remotely piloted aircraft program as a precaution. (See also AP’s May 14 report via the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.)
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…