Air Force: I Tawt I Taw A GPS
""No, the GPS will not go down," tweeted Col. Dave Buckman. "The issue is under control. We are working hard to get out the word."
The damage control comes on the heels of a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Wednesday that said an overhaul of the 20-year-old system is three years behind schedule.
"If the Air Force does not meet its schedule goals for development of GPS IIIA satellites, there will be an increased likelihood that in 2010, as old satellites begin to fail, the overall GPS constellation will fall below the number of satellites required to provide the level of GPS service that the U.S. government commits," the GAO warned.
"We're committed to the modernization of GPS," tweeted Buckman. "We already have two satellite programs under way to update our fleet. Agree w/ GAO there's a potential risk, but GPS isn't falling out of the sky---we have plans to mitigate risk and prevent a gap in coverage."
Buckman went on to say that the Air Force currently has more than 30 satellites in orbit and will launch an additional satellite in August and another early next year. "Going below 24 won't happen."
The public is also not likely to notice a difference in GPS accuracy, Buckman said. "[We] have proven procedures to optimize constellation to mitigate impacts."
"We definitely need to keep this in perspective," he said. "Since 1995, GPS has never failed to exceed performance standards."