Space Force to Issue SBIR Phase II Contracts for GPS Alternatives

The U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Space Office will provide up to $40 million in grants to commercial companies that can provide GPS satellite alternatives.

Col. Richard Kniseley, director of COSMO and a past Potomac Officers Club event speaker, said during the POC 2024 Space Summit that while most space-based navigation capabilities use GPS, the Space Force relies more on position, navigation and timing solutions. According to Kniseley, the “Alternative Position, Navigation, & Timing Challenge” will allow participants to receive Direct-to-Phase II Small Business Innovation Research contracts for PNT alternatives that can support warfighters, civilians and commercial operators.

COSMO will select the awardees from a pool of businesses that responded to a solicitation issued by the Department of the Air Force in November, Breaking Defense reported Tuesday.

The contracting program was announced a month after the U.S. Army awarded CACI International a five-year cooperative research and development agreement to assess the company’s PNT and tactical signals intelligence capabilities. Under the CRADA, CACI will demonstrate its Earth-space time synchronization solution and its ability to collect, geolocate, demodulate and decode digital mobile radio signals.

The Army will also assess CACI’s satellite technologies for laser communications, laser sensing and secure communications.