The land-based Joint Precision Approach and Landing System is getting back on track after the deputy secretary of defense issued the Resource Management Directive-700 in January that restored full funding to the program.
JPALS is a family of systems that will provide precision approach and landing capability for all of the Department of Defense. It will operate in land-based fixed and tactical environments, sea-based environments and, eventually, a back-packable system will support special operation environments, officials said.
While the Navy is the lead executive service for the JPALS family of systems and working on the sea-based version, the Air Force is responsible for the LB JPALS that will provide this GPS-based approach and landing capabilities.
"Today, each service -- the Army, the Navy, the Air Force -- has one or more unique solutions," said Col. Jimmie Schuman, the Aerospace Management Division senior materiel leader. "JPALS is an interoperable system that will be used by all the services and civil aircraft."
The underlying technology is a differential GPS, the same technology Honeywell used for their civil product that was certified for use in September 2009 by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Program office officials are working toward procuring a military version of this technology, which will include employing an encrypted data link and GPS secure military code with anti-jam capability. Work is also being done to ensure interoperability with the civil community.
"Currently you have to install an (instrument landing system) for every runway end," said Brian Pierce, the aircraft integration lead for Jacobs Technology. "With JPALS, you would only need one system to support the entire airfield."
