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.)
The stand-up of the Space Force, and now its early overhaul and the creation of a new Space Systems Command, are all about resilience: Ensuring that space capabilities, which the whole country relies on, could survive a concerted attack by a near-peer adversary. As part of that drive, a new…