Navy chooses GPS Source to provide rugged GNSS antennas and signal splitters for special forces vehicles

LAKEHURST, N.J. – U.S. Navy communications experts needed rugged global navigation satellite system (GNSS) antennas and signal splitters for special forces land vehicles. They found their solution from GPS Source Inc., a subsidiary of General Dynamics Mission Systems, in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Officials of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, N.J., awarded a $10.2 million five-year contract to GPS Source in late June for Global Positioning System (GPS) source splitters and antennas.

The contract calls for GPS Source to provide as many as 2,000 GPS signal splitters and as many as 4,000 GPS antennas for U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) Family of Specialized Operations Vehicles.

These GNSS antennas and signal splitters are designed to improve signal reliability in military environments with high electromagnetic interference and provide critical radio frequency links between the SOCOM Family of Specialized Operations Vehicles to other equipment.

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GPS Source designs and builds rugged GPS antennas like the GNSS-3A GNSS active antenna, which is built for long-term reliability, company officials say. This antenna is small and lightweight, with protection against the effects of harsh environmental conditions such as dust, mud, water, and temperature extremes.

The GPS Source GNSS-3A active antenna is for manpack, ground, marine, aircraft, and space applications, as well as for several different GPS devices and operating platforms.

The GNSS-3A receives satellite GNSS from the U.S. GPS, Russian GLONASS, and European Galileo satellites, and protects offers protection against ultraviolet sunlight, rain, lightning strikes, chemicals, and jet fuels.

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The waterproof bottom-mount GNSS antenna includes built-in test (BIT), and can monitor the DC voltage on the antenna's center conductor to determine the status of the cable and antenna connection. It comes in tan desert sand color, as well as other colors.

The SOCOM Family of Specialized Operations Vehicles consists of ruggedized military vehicles ranging from militarized dune buggies to heavy military vehicles that are designed for off-road use, and offer military survivability; are certified for transport in tiltrotor aircraft and helicopters; offer modular open-systems architectures for custom tasks and technology insertion.

On this contract GPS Source will do the work in Colorado Springs, Colo., and should be finished by June 2029. For more information contact GPS Source online at www.gpssource.com, or the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division-Lakehurst at www.navair.navy.mil/lakehurst.