MAPS Gen II approved for full rate production

The MAPS Gen II (Mounted Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing System Generation II) has received approval to enter full rate production, according to an 11th March press release from Collins Aerospace.

The MAPS Gen II has been developed to provide assured navigation for US Army and Marine Corps vehicles. The full rate production announcement follows the fifth order for the system since 2019 when it was first selected. At the time, Collins was contracted to provide an unknown number of the MAPS Gen II system for trials and evaluation. The company anticipated that it could be required to deliver as many as 8,000 sets for US Army vehicles. 

A five year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract with a ceiling value of $583 million was signed in 2022. This followed a competitive selection which demonstrated the system’s ability to improve navigation and positioning. Full rate production means that the design of the product is considered mature and stable, and that the manufacturing processes are reliable. 

It also signifies that the design has proceeded through extensive operational testing proving its ability to deliver the required results. Full rate production also clears the way for production at much greater scale, indicating that the system will soon be rolled out across the US Army and USMC vehicle fleets. 

“Real world testing in the competitive phase of the MAPS program has proven that the MAPS Gen II system raises the bar for Assured PNT performance when GPS is challenged or denied,” said Ryan Bunge, vice president and general manager for Communication, Navigation and Guidance for Collins Aerospace in 2022. 

Tech profile: MAPS Gen II

The MSAS-100 antenna is shown here, it can receive both M-code and Y-code military GPS. Credit: Collins Aerospace.

MAPS Gen II builds upon MAPS Gen I, it comprises the Collins Aerospace NavHub™-100 navigation system and Multi-Sensor Antenna System (MSAS-100). It uses NavFusion, a technology developed by Collins to fuse satellite navigation data with what the company describes as “secured positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) data.” The NavHub distributes the assured PNT data to all systems carried by a vehicle, which can include the AN/PRC-162 vehicular radios. This is important, because radio networks often need to know the time for them to work properly. If you have ever had the experience of an iPhone which is set to the incorrect time and date, you will find that a lot of its capabilities do not function properly. Radio networks can face the same challenge if they lose access to the timing that is often provided by satellites. 

The MSAS-100 is an anti-jam antenna, which typically means it provides layers of protection through frequency selection and filtering, to assure that GPS signals are received. It can receive M-code GPS signals, which are dedicated military GPS signals. They are encrypted, which helps mitigate spoofing attempts, and the signal power is increased alongside advanced signal processing. These elements seek to address the two primary weaknesses of satellite navigation: First, the signal is relatively weak because of the distance travelled. Most GPS satellites are in medium earth orbit – around 20,000 km from the Earth’s surface – which means that they lose power by the time they have reached the vehicle or system on the ground. As a result, it requires a correspondingly small amount of energy to jam or disrupt those signals. The second element is spoofing, which is possible by inserting malicious data into an unencrypted data link. This approach can be preferred over jamming, as it will give the jammed device a different location, leading to artillery being fired against the wrong target, or worse. 

Calibre comment

The potential impact of GPS jamming has been recognised and understood for at least ten years by the western military community as well as Russia and China. Russia has developed an extensive suite of electronic warfare capabilities designed to disrupt and degrade NATO’s access to GPS and other forms of satellite navigation. Its armed forces recognise the disruptive impact that successfully achieving GPS denial over large areas would have; from communications networks struggling to function, to forcing manual surveys of gun positions, and the failure of precision strike weapons. Developing alternatives that are proven in close to operational settings is therefore imperative. There are other companies working in this space, one example being Flarebright, which has developed low-cost inertial navigation.