GILBERT, Ariz., April 16 The Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite, designed and built by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, was successfully launched today from the U.S. Army’s Reagan Test Site in the Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands. C/NOFS is a Department of Defense (DOD) Space Test Program and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) mission that will forecast outages in DOD satellite communication links caused by ionospheric irregularities.
General Dynamics was the prime contractor responsible for the design, development, payload and system integration, test and launch of the satellite. Assembly of the spacecraft and payload integration took place at its space systems factory in Gilbert, Arizona. General Dynamics worked with the AFRL to incorporate the six payloads into a fully functional space satellite. Orbital Sciences Corp. was the mission launch provider using its Pegasus launch service.
The satellite communication and navigation systems used by the Air Force and other DOD agencies are susceptible to outages due to ionospheric disturbances (scintillations) in the Earth’s equatorial region. C/NOFS is designed to help predict these scintillations. C/NOFS is the first-ever satellite system to forecast the potential degradation of satellite communication, navigation and surveillance systems due to ionospheric scintillations.
General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics NYSE: GD, designs, develops, manufactures, integrates, operates and maintains mission systems for defense, space, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, homeland security and homeland defense customers. Headquartered in Fairfax, Va., the company specializes in ground systems; imagery processing; mission payloads; space vehicles; maritime subsurface, surface and airborne mission systems; and tasking, collection, processing, exploitation and dissemination programs for national intelligence. More information is available on the Internet at http://www.gd-ais.com.
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 83,500 people worldwide and reported 2007 revenues of $27.2 billion. The company is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies. More information about the company is available on the Internet at http://www.generaldynamics.com.
