Pentagon may find itself short of GPS receivers, GAO reports

The U.S. military may soon find itself short of GPS receivers for its weapons and gear, thanks to years of delays in the effort to upgrade to a secure, jam-resistant signal, a government watchdog agency reports.

The two-decade-and-counting transition to the new signal—dubbed M-code—has moved so slowly that “DOD is facing a potential gap in the availability of GPS receiver cards as some of the current cards can no longer be produced and the M-code-capable replacements have been delayed,” the Government Accountability Office said in a new congressionally mandated report.

Arms exports are also depleting the stock of receiver cards, which are being fished out of old items to furnish new ones, Army officials told GAO.

Military and defense officials have for years highlighted the vulnerability of GPS signals to jamming, and those warnings have played out in Ukraine, the Baltic Sea and elsewhere thanks to Russia’s increasingly advanced electronic warfare efforts. 

The effort to modernize GPS rests in new chips called ASIC chips, which the military is developing in two increments: ASIC chips for B-2 bombers, DDG-class destroyers, Army Strykers and Marine Corps Light-Tactical Vehicles, and develop smaller versions for precision munitions and handheld equipment. The chips are slated for  final testing next year. 

The Defense Logistics Agency ordered a bulk buy of the chips in 2021 and 2022. But that was before demand spiked for U.S.-made, GPS-enabled military equipment. 

GlobalFoundries, the only company that makes ASIC chips, is phasing out production of chips because there are better solutions in the commercial market. 

“M-code cards developed under…Increment 1 program, as well as derivative versions of these cards, all require increment 1 ASICs specially designed for them, with no potential for an off-the-shelf replacement,” GAO wrote.

Result: the Defense Department believes the bulk buy supplies “will not last as long as previously estimated.”

That’s only one of several potential delays to GPS highlighted in the report. Efforts to launch new GPS satellites and deploy new ground stations also face “significant work and challenges.”