Department of Defense Announces End of Support to Codeless/Semi-Codeless GPS Access

Following a consensual agreement and the resolution of the parties concerned, the Department of Defense (DoD) has concluded arrangement to end its support to codeless/semi-codeless GPS access by December 31, 2020.

This was published in the Federal Register Tuesday, September 23 in which the DoD reiterated its stance. "The U.S. government acknowledges global use of GPS codeless and semi-codeless techniques and commits to maintaining the existing GPS L1 C/A, L1 P(Y), L2C, and L2 P(Y) signal characteristics until December 31, 2020, when the second and third civil signals (L2C and L5) are planned to be broadcast from a minimum of 24 GPS satellites," the notice states. "After the planned transition date, the characteristics of the L1 P(Y) and L2 P(Y) signals transmitted by any or all GPS satellites broadcasting two or more civil-coded signals may change without further notice and may preclude the use of P(Y) coded signals for high-accuracy applications."

It should be recalled that on May 16 the U.S. Dept. of Commerce's (DoC) Office of Space Commercialization first issued a Notice for Public Comment on the DoD proposal to discontinue supporting P(Y) codeless/semi-codeless on both GPS L1 and L2 frequencies broadcast from modernized satellites (Block IIR-M, Block IIF and Block IIIA/B/C) beginning December 31, 2020.