It?s official: the US Air Force has awarded Honeywell International Inc. a contract worth about $14 million to provide engineering services to support the new Enhanced GPS and Inertial Navigation Systems (EGIs). This is one of four new contracts the Air Force has awarded? at the end of September, and provides the airforce with high-precision altitude, velocity, heading, and flight vector data for both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.
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Honeywell will conduct their work in Clearwater, FL and expects to wrap up by March 31, 2015 according to a statement released from the US Department of Defense. Honeywell brings its over 25 years of experience with laser precision navigation systems to the table, improving EGI capability with heavy investments in software, quartz accelerometers, and digital ring laser gyros.
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This $14 million contract supports a previous contract for $80.2 million for a variety of platforms for the Army, Navy, and foreign military.
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Other contracts awarded include Rockwell Collins and L-3 Communications, awarded $30 million each to engineer and test new GPS technology. Raytheon received a little less than $30 million to develop receiver cards for GPS systems.
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The US is not the only one with a constellation of GPS satellites. Russia is the only real competition with the GLONASS system, but the European Union is working on Galileo, their attempt at a GPS system.
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The contracts were announced a few days shy of the October launch of the first new GPS satellite, a Boeing GPS IFF. The new satellite provides an improved level of accuracy, a more secure signal for the military, and a longer design life. Although the military relies heavily on the technology for things like weapon systems targeting, so do countless civilians. Whether it is your smartphone or in-dash GPS device, the new GPS satellites will improve your overall experience.
Source: http://www.rmtracking.com/blog/2012/10/29/honeywell-awarded-air-force-gps-contract/
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