Defense Dept. studying options to lower cost of GPS receivers.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Up Front

Information-age technologies such as software radio and miniaturized electronics could, one day, make it possible for soldiers to combine their global positioning satellite receivers and handheld radios into a single device. Experts caution, however, that fears of enemy jamming and tampering could make any software-based GPS technologies undesirable for military use.

The acceptance of a software version of GPS would be highly dependent on the success of the Defense Department's $14 billion Joint Tactical Radio System. Once the JTRS radios enter service, possibly by 2008 or 2010, it is conceivable that one of the wavebands on the radio would be die GPS system, experts said. JTRS is intended to replace every radio system in the Defense Department.

The advantages of consolidating voice, data communications and GPS navigation in a single device boil down to cost savings and convenience. The Army, the heaviest user of GPS services, is fretting over the cost of new GPS receivers, which go for $2,000 to $3,000 each.

These next-generation receivers--to be fielded in the coming year--are much more sophisticated than commercial devices and, most importantly, are in compliance with the encryption and anti-tamper requirements mandated by the Defense Department. The steep prices for these receivers, however, mean that not every soldier will get one, Army officials note.

At various industry conferences in recent months, Gen. Paul Kern, head of the Army Materiel Command, questioned why AMC must pay $3,000 for a GPS receiver, while Radio Shack sells devices for $275. As thousands of soldiers shipped off to Iraq during the past year, many bought their own commercial GPS receivers, which tend to be more user friendly than Army-issued devices, although they are not as precise.

Experts attribute the high cost of military receivers to the anti-tamper chip, called the GPS selective availability anti-spoofing module. SAASM is mandatory on every GPS system purchased by the Defense Department.

But a program official at the GPS joint program office said this technology is not necessarily the biggest cost factor. A SAASM receiver generally consists of a government-designed data processor, a vendor-designed SAASM module and a vendor-designed host GPS receiver.

The cost of such receivers can vary widely, said the JPO official. The hardware alone is inexpensive. But other costs add up, such as implementing anti-tamper technology, protecting GPS cryptography and...