Future of GPS

[Arrow76R]

Aircraft Will Need Avionics Receivers Capable Of Processing L5 Signals From GPS III Satellites
Aviation Today (6/11) reports that “aircraft will need to have avionics receivers able to process the legacy L1 signal and the most recent L5 signal to take advantage of the precision location advances in the Global Positioning System III and GPS III Follow-On (GPS IIIF) satellites. L5, the third signal for GPS satellites, operates at 1176 MHz and is used on GPS II satellites, but will become fully operational with GPS III and IIIF satellites.” GPS III and IIIF satellites “are to feature better resiliency, greater accuracy and up to eight times improved anti-jamming capability for military users.” The GPS Innovation Alliance “includes Lockheed Martin, the alliance’s newest member and the builder of the GPS satellites; John Deere, Garmin, Trimble, and Collins Aerospace, as well as 11 national organizations in the alliance’s affiliates program.”

Save your pennies for new boxes! I am holding off on any new current GPS boxes since they will be OBE in the not too distant future.

 

[Salty]

Might as well save your money for other things then, because there will always be a "next big thing"

 

[tsts4]

If my GPS works now, nothing in your post indicates it won't in the future. At worst it sounds like my GTN 650 might not be able to take advantage of some future L5 based capability. Meh. It does everthing I need it to and then some without L5. If and when they sunset the signals that it does use, then I'll be concerned.

 

[murphey]

But what’s not in that article is the timeframe. The new GPS sats are years away, altho LM has launched one. But the ground ops and everything else are not just years away, but many years behind schedule.

 

[NordicDave]

Eventually WAAS GPS will go the way of LORAN since secondary ground based signals are required for precise location. A guess on my part. I don’t know anything about GPS L5 specifications, but if it’s 100% space based it’s not hard to imagine an evolution to a new platform other than WAAS someday.

 

[rbridges]

Might as well save your money for other things then, because there will always be a "next big thing"

This. There will never be a "perfect" time to buy something.

 

[Velocity173]

My current setup 480 WAAS has never failed me and it’s accuracy is far greater than I need.

I can see the improved anti-jamm benefit for the military, but for a typical civilian user, I don’t see GPS III as a game changer.

 

[murphey]

My current setup 480 WAAS has never failed me and it’s accuracy is far greater than I need.

I can see the improved anti-jamm benefit for the military, but for a typical civilian user, I don’t see GPS III as a game changer.

It's really not. The impetus is the DOD and other acronyms that do not include FAA. Unfortunately, the new, secure technology also means new hardware on the DOD side to take advantage of it. That "secure technology" is one of the reasons the new GPS is so far behind schedule and massively overbudget. Look up Raytheon GPS-OCX going back to 2010, when the contract was first awarded awarded. Don't forget to read when then Nunn-McCurdy Amendment was invoked on RTN in 2016.

 

[murphey]

As an update....I'm betting any changes needed to GPS equipment 2015 (?) and later will merely be software upgrades. Garmin and Avidyne and the rest aren't stupid.

 

[denverpilot]

As an update....I'm betting any changes needed to GPS equipment 2015 (?) and later will merely be software upgrades. Garmin and Avidyne and the rest aren't stupid.

But Garmin would do it just to get another round of profit they could blame on new stuff. LOL.

 

[Arrow76R]

The L5 frequency is different than L1 so unless the receiver is a Software Defined Radio (SDR) the navigator will require additional RF hardware to receive the L5 signal.

 

[PaulMillner]

As an update....I'm betting any changes needed to GPS equipment 2015 (?) and later will merely be software upgrades. Garmin and Avidyne and the rest aren't stupid.

even if they're smart, how do you write software to receive a new frequency, 1176 MHz?

seems like you'd need a radio, hardware, with that capability...

 

[murphey]

even if they're smart, how do you write software to receive a new frequency, 1176 MHz?

seems like you'd need a radio, hardware, with that capability...

As arrow76r pointed out....an SDR. But I seriously doubt anyone will enlighten us as to their plans...until the MSRP is published.

 

[tspear]

My current setup 480 WAAS has never failed me and it’s accuracy is far greater than I need.

I can see the improved anti-jamm benefit for the military, but for a typical civilian user, I don’t see GPS III as a game changer.

Actually, the theory is it will bring the equivalent of WAAS around the world, so you will have it when traveling instead of just in the USA. Plus it is supposed to be precise enough that LAAS is not needed for cat 1/2/3 automated landing systems.
No idea, if reality pans out on any of this.

Tim

 

[tspear]

Might as well save your money for other things then, because there will always be a "next big thing"

GPS and most of these systems are on roughly a 30-45 year cycle. Look at NDB, VOR, GPS... We are getting near the end of the current form of GPS, and potentially the enhancement of WAAS.
I still do not think I would wait. But a fair amount of this tech actually moves at a glacial pace.

Tim

 

[AU_James]

I just realized that in this "not too distant future" I'm going to be the old pilot guy who says "this non-WAAS GPS can get me anywhere I need to be, you young pilots need to remember how to fly the magenta line like we did in the old days."

I've actually never been inclined to upgrade to WAAS on my 430. Maybe that's just because my mission does not include the need for LPV (or really even ILS) minimums. And in the rare occasion that I will need those minimums, I can probably just land somewhere else and wait for a few minutes.

Maybe my outlook will change if/when I fly for a job, but for personal flying I think I'm good to go until the equipment in my plane is no longer supported by the GPS or nav infrastructure and/or the equipment in my plane dies and nobody will touch that ancient relic to repair it!

 

[GRG55]

This. There will never be a "perfect" time to buy something.

But, but, but...property agents/realtors ALWAYS say today is The.Perfect.Time.To.Buy.A.House.

 

[rbridges]

But, but, but...property agents/realtors ALWAYS say today is The.Perfect.Time.To.Buy.A.House.

and dealerships say the boss is out of town and this is the best time to buy a car.

 

[bflynn]

Yeah, I don't know. I'm only getting 3m accuracy right now, I don't know if that's good enough. I think I need that under 0.25m.

At some point, technology for a particular use isn't really improving anymore. It's only changing.

 

[dans2992]

Ie (processor clock speeds)

 

[WDD]

Given how fast the FAA moves, just buy the latest thing that works for you. In 20 years we'll have something different anyway.

 

[flyingron]

I'm pretty sure your WAAS GPS is already receiving both L1 and one of the other GPS frequencies. This is done to compare the phases to correct for atmospheric distortions. The military some time ago agreed not to mess around with the relative phases. The actual data transmitted on L2 and L5 is only used by the military (encrypted) receivers, but the phase information on the different frequency when compared with L1 helps in improving the accuracy.