When will GPS III come online

[Rickwalley]

Hi everyone…..new member here.
When is everyone’s prediction when the next gen GPS III system will be functional for civilian/consumer products use? From what I can tell, 5 of the 10 satellites have been launched? I’m guessing Covid slowed things down. Will any of our hardware devices connect to it, and therefore take advantage of the greatly increased accuracy? Or will we all have to reinvest in new hardware to fully leverage the new performance being described?

 

[Nuvi-Nebie]

I think the only certainty is that you are not going to see any over night dramatic changes in the GPS (GNSS) system, any changes are going to be very gradual, the current 'set' (constellation) of GPS satellites comprises of 24 + spare units, they are slowly being changed out for the new GPS III units with 5 currently launched, but even when all 10 are in space that wouldn't be enough to have a new set of satellites

As GPS III slowly replaces existing satellites they will offer some new features, these include, stronger satellite signal strength, additional or improved frequency bands (L1, L2 and L5), better accuracy clocks, an M-code with more encryption and imutity to being tampered with etc., however they fall into 3 groups, they are :- features you can use with current equipment, features that you will need a new GPS to use, features a consumer will never get, here is the list :-

With existing equipment : Stronger Signal Strength

With a new GPS : L1, L2, L5 band improvements, better clocks

Not available : M-code (Military only)

 

[Rickwalley]

Thanks for the quick reply.
Very helpful as I decide about when I might get ready for investing in new products.