Mary-Louise Hoffman
Northrop Grumman has submitted a proposal to build a Global Positioning System III spacecraft and navigational payload for the U.S. Air Force‘s Space Vehicles 11+Phase 1 Production Readiness Feasibility Assessment program.
The company said Wednesday it plans to offer the military branch a heritage spacecraft designed to operate in medium Earth orbit and a prototype of navigation technology that demonstrated military-code signal power during a test.
The Air Force asked interested companies earlier this year to propose ideas for the development of 22 succeeding GPS III space vehicles.
The military branch plans to award as many as three feasibility study contracts potentially worth $5 million each in the third quarter of this year.
Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract to produce the first eight GPS III satellites.
