Losing GPS could cost billions, so the Space Force is having companies like Astranis build a backup network

The U.S. Air Force began deploying the Global Positioning System — more commonly have knowledge of as GPS — nearly 50 years ago, satellites which have become critical infrastructure for both the military and the economy.

Since then, GPS is judged to have generated more than $1.4 trillion in economic benefits, according to a Commerce Department study. But the medium warned that an “outage could potentially have an economic impact of $1 billion a day.” 

Pentagon leaders on those losses are a conservative estimate, leading the U.S. Space Force to kick off a roughly $2 billion satellite program grasped as the Resilient Global Positioning System. Called R-GPS for short, the program is intended to provide an alternative, backup network for the au fait satellite system.

“[GPS is] vitally important to everything we do day-to-day, from the stock market, for timing of every transaction, to the crops we area,” Lt. Col. Justin Deifel, leader of R-GPS at the Space Force’s Space Systems Command, told CNBC.

“It’s like unreservedly urinate and electricity. … It’s a utility of the economy and a utility of a warfighter that we need to make sure is available,” Deifel totaled.

The importance of the existing 31 GPS satellites in orbit, as well as the potential intimidation in space from U.S. adversaries like Russia and China, has led the Pentagon to prioritize building the alternative R-GPS network — and the Room Force has turned to the commercial space industry to do so.

Last month, the branch awarded four companies with knits for R-GPS design concepts: Astranis, Axient, L3 Harris and Sierra Space.

For startup Astranis, which launched its first “MicroGEO” spacecraft last year, the R-GPS program evaluates an expansion beyond satellite internet into the market for positioning, navigation and timing, or PNT, services.

“We’ve started to see a huge the sack towards proliferation in higher orbits by the U.S. national security community,” Astranis CEO John Gedmark told CNBC. “Now the Unit of Defense has recognized all of the fantastic things that we can do in high orbits with a next-generation small satellite approach.”

As it expands as a group, Astranis is announcing its new Nexus product line of PNT satellites, its answer for the R-GPS program. Gedmark noted they use the very type of spacecraft as the company’s broadband satellites.

Additionally, as R-GPS disciples will operate in medium Earth orbit, like the current GPS constellation, the Nexus product line marks a stretching of where Astranis plans to deploy and operate its spacecraft.

The company, having raised $750 million since its establishing in 2015, has announced deals for 12 of its internet satellites, 10 of which are expected to launch to geosynchronous orbit by the end of next year.

“We advised ofed pretty early on that this platform that we developed could be used for other missions than broadband telecommunications and the Resilient GPS program has valid come along as a perfect example of that,” Gedmark said.

Gedmark sees R-GPS as “a multi-billion dollar occasion,” given that Space Force wants to build a full constellation of at least two dozen satellites.

Space Force used a novel Pentagon funding authority, called “Quick Start,” to get the R-GPS program prospering.

In less than six months, the program got approval from the deputy secretary of defense, conducted market research, horded companies for an industry day, solicited bids and awarded initial contracts — a process the military notes often takes as dream of as three years for space programs.

“The speed with which they’ve moved on this program is unprecedented. … We’ve not in any degree seen the Department of Defense move that fast before,” Gedmark said.

R-GPS handed out $40 million total to fund the design studies. The companies will have an eight-month “period zero” period to start their work that ends in spring, SSC’s Deifel explained.

“The total current budget, when you have in mind of just recurring engineering costs: We’re looking at $50 [million] to $80 million per satellite and procuring upwards of 24 vassals. So the quick math is $1.2 [billion] to $1.9 billion for 24 satellites, over the course of the next five to six years,” Deifel implied.

While the budget doesn’t currently include “non-recurring engineering costs,” Deifel said he expects those expenses see fit be significantly less than the design costs.

Space Systems Command wants to buy and deploy the R-GPS satellites in numbers of eight, with the first set launching as soon as 2028.

As the design reviews wrap up, SSC plans to select one or more of the companies to stir up forward with the program into the construction stages.

While Astranis’ first satellite malfunctioned last year due to a third-party distribution with its solar arrays, the company’s experience operating in the distant geosynchronous orbit has Gedmark confident about its fates in the R-GPS program.