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The U.S. Space Force has ended an exploratory effort to add smaller, lower-cost navigation satellites to strengthen the existing GPS constellation, reports Space News.
The Space Force does not plan to move forward with on-orbit demonstrations of industy-designed smallsats under the Resilient GPS (R-GPS) program, which began in 2024. In September of that year, the Space Force selected Astranis, L3Harris Technologies and Sierra Space to develop concepts for small, cost-effective navigation satellites to increase GPS resilience, using an expedited “quick start” contract process.
But funding for the next phase of the program was not included in the fiscal year 2026 budget because of higher Department of the Air Force priorities, according to the report.
R-GPS was part of a broader push by the Pentagon to diversify satellite architectures amid concerns that spacecraft are vulnerable to interference or attack.
The Space Force has not said whether it plans to pursue alternative positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) efforts in place of R-GPS.
Lawmakers have repeatedly raised concerns about GPS vulnerability and have called for studies examining commercial low Earth orbit navigation services as potential complements or backups to GPS.
