$138.3M to Begin New Navstar IIF Satellites

Navstar GPS IIF(click to view full) Boeing Co. Navigation and Communication Systems in Huntington Beach, CA received a $138.3 million fixed-price-incentive-firm, and cost-plus-award-fee contract modification for the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System Block IIF. As our spotlight article “The GPS Constellation: Now and Future” put it: “The follow-on system for the Navstar GPS Block IIR-M will be the Block IIF “follow-on” satellite. These satellites will have the same capabilities as the Block IIR-M, plus a third civil signal called L5 to support civil aviation and other applications. Navstar GPS Block IIF will be the end of the current generation of GPS satellites.” This contract modification exercises the FY 2006 option to begin production of three new Block IIF GPS satellites (Space Vehicle 10-12 under the military’s NAVSTAR GPS joint program office). Boeing expects that the first GPS Block IIF satellite, known as SV-1, will be ready for delivery in 2007, and work on this contract for the 3 new satellites will be complete in January 2010. The Headquarters Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, CA issued the contract (F04701-96-C-0025/P00387). See also Boeing’s July 5/06 corporate release.