WASHINGTON — Air Force officials now predict operational testing of chip cards to enable service-wide maritime and aviation platforms to receive jam- and spoof-resistant GPS signals will wrap up in fiscal 2027 — two decades after the first satellite carrying the signals, called M-code, was launched.
“[D]evelopment activity has already finished [and] we’re now in just operational checkout,” Col. Jameson Locklear, senior materiel leader for the M-Code Aviation Receivers Joint Program Office at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC), told reporters in Dayton, Ohio on Tuesday.
The Space Force and Air Force agreed last year to transition management of the multifaceted Military GPS User Equipment (MGUE) program, which is designed to equip the services with M-code capable kit, from the Space Systems Command (SSC) to AFLCMC.
It’s no small task. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has estimated that up to a million M-code receivers could be required by the joint force to equip some 700 cross-service weapon systems — everything from ground vehicles for the Army to Navy destroyers, Air Force fighter jets and radios for individual Marines in the field.
The M-code program has been one of the Defense Department’s most troubled acquisition programs, as detailed in numerous reports by the GAO, as well as the Pentagon’s own Office of Test and Evaluation (DOT&E).
The long delays in enabling the services to use the M-code have taken place against the backdrop of ever-improving adversary capabilities to jam and spoof current GPS signals — raising fears of serious problems during a conflict ranging from lost troops to precision-guided
“Having the satellites in orbit does not matter if the right equipment is not in the hands of warfighters on Earth,” Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Breaking Defense. “The efficacy of GPS in a battlespace where the electromagnetic spectrum is contested depends on operationalizing the new receivers at scale the sooner the better.”
Development of the M-code signal began in 1999 due to concerns about the vulnerability to jamming and spoofing of the original GPS signals in the L1 band, including the US military’s encrypted Precision (P(Y)) code.
The Space Force’s predecessor, Air Force Space Command, launched the first GPS satellite capable of broadcasting the signal, built by Lockheed Martin, in 2005. The Pentagon had originally hoped to have initial operational capability for M-code use across the services in 2009.
The MGUE program began in 2012, after a previous failed effort, and was picked up by the Space Force following its 2019 inception. While the space service was responsible for the development and procurement of the M-code chip cards, the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps are responsible for integrating those receivers onto their various platforms.
The MGUE program has two phases.
MGUE Increment 1 covers the baseline military-unique application-specific integrated circuit card (ASIC) chips and cards for initial integration with platforms across the services. There are two types of MGUE Increment 1 cards: one for ground vehicles, such as Strykers and Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTVs); and one for maritime and aviation platforms, which has seen significant programmatic overhauls and delays.
In 2012, three companies were put under contract for the chip cards and receivers: Rockwell Collins (in 2020 BAE bought Collins’ GPS business) won $27.7 million for the ground vehicle card; Raytheon (now a subsidiary of RTX), $25.2 million for a maritime/aviation card; and L3Harris, $27.5 million for a maritime/aviation card.
MGUE Increment 2 will deliver smaller, faster ASIC chip cards that are meant to enable the use of the updated, more powerful M-code signal broadcast by the newest GPS satellite models, called GPS III Follow-On. The program includes development of a new Miniaturized Serial Interface (MSI) receiver for systems like missiles and precision-guided munitions, as well as a handheld radio equipped with that new receiver.
SSC in 2020 issued three contracts for chip cards and receivers to BAE, L3Harris and Raytheon valued at $552 million, with a 2026 deadline for first deliveries. However, according to Locklear, only BAE and L3Harris currently are involved in the program.
Neither Raytheon nor AFCLMC were able to respond by press time to an inquiry about when the company exited the effort and why.
Aviation Software Shortfalls
Under the MGUE Increment 1 program, testing of the M-code chip cards/receivers for Army and Marine Corps ground vehicles has been completed.
An Army spokesperson from the Capability Program Executive Intelligence and Spectrum Warfare (CPE ISW) told Breaking Defense in a statement last month that the Army continues to “rapidly develop and field” M-code systems across the joint force.
To date, CPE ISW has fielded nearly 4,000 M-code receivers, including “high-priority” operational units across the Army. The platforms that have received M-code cards include mounted ones such as the Stryker, medium tactical vehicles and Humvees. The service has also fielded M-code cards for dismounted platforms via a system developed by TRX.
The spokesperson added that the service is “postured” to field another 2,000 M-code receivers by the end of this fiscal year to “similar type mounted and dismounted platforms.”
However, software shortfalls were found following the completion of the development program for the maritime/aviation chip cards, according to the GAO’s latest review of the program published July 2. Army and Air Force officials confirmed that while one key issue with the card’s signal processing accuracy has been resolved, they are still working through other software kinks.
The accuracy shortfall, GAO reported, cropped up during initial testing of the aviation application on the first test platform, the Army’s Gray Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle.
(Originally the Air Force was to be the first to test the MGUE Increment 1 chip cards, integrating it into the B-2 bomber. However, as noted in a September 2024 GAO report, the service faced a series of delays due to problems with the Raytheon-made chip card, and in October 2024 the Space Force announced that in order to move testing forward, the Army’s Gray Eagle would instead move to the front of the line.)
The Army determined that while the aviation accuracy wasn’t quite up to the program’s requirements, it is sufficient under an Army-centric standard and decided to push the Joint Requirements Oversight Council for a change.
That change was approved, Locklear said, noting, “It turned out we didn’t actually need something better.”
Further, he said, a different software glitch affecting both maritime and aviation navigation precision was detected and now has been fixed for the Gray Eagle via an update. The new software has “been stable for several months, and we anticipate it continuing to be so,” he added.
This means that Gray Eagle M-Code testing is now awaiting sign off by DOT&E.
“The DOT&E report has not come out, and that’s actually the one that we will use for sort of deciding whether to move forward or do any additional changes,” Locklear said. “I think the answer is going to be that the testing showed that it did what it was supposed to do.”
“We’ve been told that it will be in our hands in fourth quarter ‘26,” he added, “and so we anticipate it in the next few weeks.”
For aviation platforms other than the Gray Eagle, the Army seems to be chugging along with M-code implementation. An Army spokesperson from Program Acquisition Executive Aviation told Breaking Defense in a statement last month that all “modern” Army aviation crewed aircraft will integrate M-code capability, including Black Hawks, Chinooks, Apaches and the new Cheyenne. But for uncrewed aircraft, only the Gray Eagle will receive M-code implementation.
The spokesperson explained that “[s]ize, weight and power constraints” on small drones will “require other solutions.”
To Borrow A Destroyer, And Fly An F-16
Meanwhile at sea, operational testing on the Navy’s DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class destroyers once again has been punted forward to fiscal 2027, from the previous 2025 deadline.
Locklear said AFLCMC met with Navy counterparts last week to discuss how to make a destroyer available so tests can wrap up by the end of FY27, given its deployment schedule.
“[We] don’t know exactly when, because of ongoing operations it can be tough to get a DDG. But the Navy is committed to finding one,” he said.
A Navy spokesperson told Breaking Defense that there are now 75 DDGs in the fleet; and according to the US Naval Institute News Fleet Tracker as of July 27 there were 16 DDGs at sea.
Some number of ships also are always in rotation for maintenance and training purposes. However, the Navy spokesperson was unable to answer by press time a query regarding how many.
As for the Air Force, according to GAO, there are three ongoing efforts to field the MGUE Increment 1 M-code chip cards into receivers:
“With MAGR-2K-M, we anticipate achieving Initial Operational Capability [IOC] on two platforms (one Navy and one Air Force) in FY27,” a AFLCMC spokesperson told Breaking Defense in an email on Thursday.
R-EGI and EGI-M both will be “ready for install” in FY28, and each should achieve IOC on one Air Force plane in FY29, the spokesperson added, noting however that AFLCMC is “working across the Joint Force to accelerate the integration of R-EGI and EGI-M, so we anticipate some IOC dates will happen sooner.”
Rolling Updates And A ‘Lot Of Good Learning’
Finally, Locklear said, AFLCMC anticipates creating a MGUE Increment 1 “sustainment strategy” to ensure software is kept up to date.
“That isn’t something that we had done previously, but software is kind of never done, right? And so, having a vehicle to change software over time, if necessary, is something that we’re considering,” he said.
Indeed, SSC on July 23 announced that on behalf of AFLCMC, it has “two agreements to BAE Systems and Trimble Military and Advanced Systems to support development of a next-generation Maritime and Aviation Receiver Card (MAVRC) military GPS user equipment receiver.”
The value of the agreements was not provided, but SSC said they “will support requirements development, risk reduction studies, and documentation for a design concept review milestone.” Further, the announcement said, the effort “is the first phase in a two-part approach that will inform future prototyping, demonstrations, and integration and testing to produce a GPS M-code receiver for maritime and aviation platforms.”
As the services race to install MGUE Increment 1 chips, the updated, miniaturized version for Increment 2 remains in the research and development stage.
Increment 2 also has two separate subprograms.
The first, which according to GAO originally was estimated to cost $1.4 billion, involves development of the Next-Generation ASIC and integrating it with a smaller M-code card. That effort completed preliminary design reviews for the original three vendors’ chips in mid-2021 and conducted preliminary design reviews on the cards in 2022.
The second, which GAO said was estimated to cost $149.2 million in 2020, was designed to build off the chip and card to develop a handheld, M-code capable receiver.
Locklear said that BAE and L3Harris continue to develop Increment 2 cards and receivers, while AFLCMC is “working on various chip and card combinations” to determine what will best work.
“A lot of good learning is happening, and we’re trying to make sure that across the portfolio, we’re making sure that we’re taking acquisition risk without taking operational risk, but that we’re also making smart decisions in investment. And so, that’s going to guide, sort of, our decision-making as we continue through Increment 2, but we’re still early in that process,” he said.
A BAE spokesperson declined to comment on the status of its receiver; and L3Harris did not respond by press time to a query from Breaking Defense.
Not too long ago there was a question of whether Increment 2 would proceed at all. Back in June 2023, then-Space Force acquisition czar Frank Calvelli suggested the service either re-do requirements or drop altogether plans for the smaller M-code chip card and its specialized GPS receiver for handheld radios.
Calvelli’s suggestion was based on GAO reports finding that the MGUE Increment 2 chip cards had failed to meet performance requirements, as well as a recommendation that the radio development lacked a “sound business case” because the other services were pursuing their own solutions.
Nonetheless, in July 2023, SSC issued a contract to Technology Advancement Group for the handheld. The command last August announced that it tested the handheld prototype, called the Joint Modernized Handheld Next-Gen GPS receiver, in a three-day event held in June 2025, with the participation of Army, Marine Corps, Air Force and Space Force officials, as well as Norwegian and French personnel. It did not provide details on the results or any date for initial operational capability.
DOT&E, however, in its 2025 review of the GPS space, ground and user segments said that the MGUE Increment 2 handheld radio would become available only in 2028.
As for the future, Swope, of CSIS, expressed optimism that AFLCMC will be able to succeed where many have failed before in getting M-code into service-wide platforms.
“AFLCMC has a history of managing very complex programs, serving a variety of customers, over their whole soup-to-nuts lifecycles. It seems like the right type of expertise and experience for taking over this program,” he said.
Diana Stancey contributed reporting from Washington, DC. Michael Marrow contributed reporting from Dayton, Ohio.
Orijinal Haberi Görüntüle
