BAE Systems has won a $16 million contract from Collins Aerospace to design and develop the M-Code Global Positioning System (GPS) solution for the U.S. Navy’s Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS), which guides aircraft onto carrier and amphibious ship decks. Announced on October 1, 2026, the award centers on the company’s Digital GPS Anti-Jam Receiver, designated DIGAR-500M, which will move JPALS from legacy Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) receivers to the encrypted military M-Code signal.
The award addresses a transition Congress mandated 15 years ago. Section 913 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2011 barred the Pentagon from buying GPS user equipment after fiscal 2017 unless it could receive M-Code, with waivers where suitable receivers did not exist. Many programs leaned on those waivers as Military GPS User Equipment (MGUE) development slipped. JPALS reached initial operational capability (IOC) on May 4, 2021, on SAASM hardware that BAE Systems already supplies. The F-35B and F-35C rely on it for shipboard recovery, and the MQ-25A Stingray unmanned tanker will.
Inside the JPALS GPS Upgrade: DIGAR-500M and Dual-Mode Operation
DIGAR is a family of digital beamforming antenna electronics built to protect GPS reception against jamming and spoofing. According to BAE Systems, the JPALS configuration provides up to 24 simultaneous steered beams for airborne and maritime platforms. Each beam concentrates gain toward a satellite while the processor suppresses interference arriving from other directions, preserving a usable signal at jamming levels that would overwhelm a conventional antenna.
The defining feature for this program is dual-mode operation. BAE Systems states that DIGAR-500M will run SAASM and M-Code together for precision carrier landings, supporting mixed-aircraft configurations. That matters because the Navy cannot convert every JPALS-equipped ship and aircraft at once. Air wings will operate aircraft carrying different receiver generations for years, and the landing system must recover all of them without a fleet-wide cutover. The announcement does not specify whether DIGAR-500M will equip the shipboard JPALS segment, the airborne segment, or both.
BAE Systems has not published size, weight, power, or anti-jam figures for DIGAR-500M. Publicly available specifications for earlier variants set the baseline: up to 16 steered beams, jamming-to-signal performance above 125 dB, compatibility with two- to seven-element controlled reception pattern antennas (CRPA), and simultaneous L1/L2 protection. The DIGAR-300 measures 75 cubic inches, against 218 cubic inches for the larger DIGAR-200. The later DIGAR-300M and DIGAR-400M embedded an M-Code receiver and raised the count to 24 beams. DIGAR already protects GPS on U.S. Air Force F-16 and F-15E fighters, the latter under a $13 million contract awarded in 2022. The company performs its military GPS work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
From Carl Vinson to MQ-25: How JPALS Recovers Carrier Aircraft
JPALS is a software-based, high-integrity differential GPS system. The ship broadcasts its own GPS measurements and motion data to approaching aircraft over a secure two-way datalink, giving the pilot or flight control computer a ship-relative approach path rather than an absolute geographic fix. During trials aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), where the first JPALS carrier landing took place in 2013, F/A-18C Hornets from test squadron VX-23 completed more than 60 touch-and-go landings, with hands-off approaches reported to within roughly 20 centimeters.
The system is slated to replace the Instrument Carrier Landing System (ICLS) and the radar-based Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS). Navy officials have stated that those legacy aids cannot support unmanned aircraft, and the F-35 was designed with JPALS from the outset. F-35B detachments aboard LHA and LHD amphibious assault ships have used an early operational capability since 2016. A land-based expeditionary variant, demonstrated by the Marine Corps with the F-35B, deploys in a single C-130, according to manufacturer data.
Raytheon led system development, with Collins Aerospace, then Rockwell Collins, supplying navigation and datalink subsystems since 2008; both businesses now sit under RTX. Production began with a contract of roughly $234 million awarded in May 2019 for 23 low-rate initial production units covering nuclear-powered carriers and amphibious assault ships. The first production unit was installed and flight-certified aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) in December 2020, clearing the way for IOC. The Navy’s 2020 schedule set full operational capability for 2030. If that schedule holds, the M-Code transition will overlap with the final JPALS installations.
Analysis: The upgrade hardens a dependency that deepens as the carrier air wing shifts toward stealth and unmanned aircraft. ACLS relies on the AN/SPN-46 radar, an active emitter. JPALS replaces it with GPS and a discrete datalink, which suits emissions-controlled operations but ties every recovery to the integrity of the satellite signal. GPS jamming and spoofing are now routine in the Russia-Ukraine war and in Middle East waters where U.S. carrier strike groups have operated repeatedly since 2023. For an F-35C pilot, degraded GPS on final approach raises workload. For an MQ-25A with no aviator aboard, precise guidance is the recovery. M-Code with beamforming protection closes that gap at the moment an aircraft is most exposed.
Next come development and qualification milestones that neither BAE Systems nor the Navy has disclosed, then a production decision and a retrofit plan for deployed JPALS ship sets. Integration timing with M-Code receivers across the F-35 fleet and with MQ-25A carrier operations will determine how long dual SAASM and M-Code operation remains necessary. The $16 million figure covers design and development only; production quantities, delivery dates, and unit costs remain undisclosed.