US falling dangerously behind China on GPS development: Pentagon’s former space-policy leader
The Pentagon needs other position-navigation-timing systems if it loses connection to GPS satellites.
Audrey Decker | August 29, 2024
Pentagon C4ISR Space Space Force
The United States isn’t working quickly enough to replace its aging and vulnerable GPS system, according to the Pentagon’s former space policy chief.
“We are falling behind. We aren't modernizing constellation signals fast enough,” John Plumb said Wednesday at a GovExec Space Project event.
China is developing a comprehensive and modernized position-navigation-timing architecture that integrates space and ground layers, Plumb said, while the Pentagon relies on about two dozen satellites to guide its planes, ships, and weapons.
“One of the things the [Defense] department is worried about is: you have 24 GPS satellites, roughly, providing all these signals for the whole planet, both commercial [and] civil signals, but also for the military. That's 24 [anti-satellite] missiles that remove that completely,” said Plumb, who served for two years as the first-ever assistant defense secretary for space policy until he stepped down in May.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2024/08/us-falling-dangerously-behind-china-gps-development-pentagons-former-space-policy-leader/399159/?oref=d1-skybox-hp
