"Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company [of] Littleton, Colorado, has been awarded a $395 million modification… contract for GPS III Space Vehicles 09 and 10," the announcement stated on Wednesday.
Work on the two satellites — the ninth and tenth in the program — will be performed at Littleton, and is expected to be complete by August 8, 2022, the Department of Defense added.
The contract was approved even though Lockheed Martin acknowledged last week that it would not deliver the first of the new generation GPS-3 satellites until December, making it likely that it will not be launched until 2017, Space News noted in a report also on Wednesday.
The first GPS-3 satellite will therefore be delivered 32 months behind schedule mainly because of problems with its advanced navigation payload developed by Exelis Geospatial Systems, now part of the Harris Corporation, the Space News report said.
