Lockheed Martin has received a $50 million contract to continue development of the next step in the U.S. Air Force Global Positioning System satellite program.

The contract announced Thursday by officials with Lockheed’s Navigation Systems unit in Denver will fund the System Design Review phase of the GPS Block III satellite that will be used by both military and civilian customers.

The review will be carried out next March, leading up to the awarding of a multi-billion dollar development contract later in the year.

“With a successful requirements review accomplished, we have quickly turned our focus to meeting the design requirements under this important contract,” said Lockheed Vice President Don DeGryse. “Our team continues to work diligently to provide a low-risk, high- confidence GPS III block approach.”

Block III is the next generation in the U.S. GPS system and builds on the technology in the Block IIR and Block IIR-M series. The latest Block IIR-M was launched in November with another in that particular series slated to go up next year if requested by the Air Force.

The Block III spacecraft will include advanced anti-jamming capabilities and enhanced security features as well as improvements in accuracy.

GPS has become a mainstay technology for the U.S. military. It is used for navigational purposes as well as to guide precision bombs and missiles to their targets.

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Source: United Press International