Sgt. Kevin Buckley, 82nd Airborne, demonstrates the use of the Defense Advanced Global Position System Receiver, following a ceremony, commemorating the delivery of the 250,000 DAGR, at Aberdeen Proving Ground.
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD – A system that provides a pivotal situational awareness tool to Soldiers in virtually every mission they are involved in was recognized for achieving a significant milestone in Fielding and Training during a ceremony hosted by the Product Director Global Positioning System (GPS) at the Top of the Bay Club last month.
The event marked the delivery of the 250,000 Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR) along with the recognition of 20,000 Soldiers trained on the device.
Soldiers representing the 82nd Airborne Division were on hand to commemorate the milestone as their unit was the recipient of the first DAGR fielded in October 2004 and, in a fitting manner, the unit turned out to be the organization that would also receive delivery of the milestone 250,000th GPS receiver.
In reflecting upon the accomplishment of fielding 250,000 systems in a relatively short time, senior officials highlighted the value fielding teams played coupled with training experts to ensure warifghters outfitted with this vital system are trained on its various functions.
Col. Dorothy E. Taneyhill, project manager Navigation Systems, pointed out that achieving such a significant milestone took a concerted effort between the Army and its industry partners as she thanked all those that have played a part in fielding DAGR throughout its history.
DAGR offers Soldiers a multitude of navigational information displays necessary to meet their precise location, targeting, and situational awareness needs, while providing protection against signal interruptions, in contrast to commercial GPS systems that when purchased at local electronic or sporting goods stores, do not provide the necessary protections for the warfighter.
The DAGR serves as the premiere military GPS receiver in service today. The system is a self-contained handheld GPS receiver, measuring
approximately 3X6X2 inches and weighing less than a pound. DAGR collects and processes the GPS satellite signal to derive position, velocity and time data for use by handheld operators and a wide array of ground-mobile Army weapons platforms.
Additional features include an ability to provide ground Soldiers with 19 hours of continuous operation on one set of batteries as well as incorporating the Selective Availability Anti-Spoof Module (SAASM) to gain access to the encrypted GPS signal. This important military-only feature provides soldiers and weapon systems with greater accuracy and signal protection in an increasingly hostile electromagnetic environment that commercial GPS receivers do not provide.
Ultimately, plans are for a total of more than 460,000 DAGR systems to be fielded to Army forces in the coming years. “Soldiers recognize that in addition to DAGRs position, navigation and timing capability, the system has proven to be reliable under the extreme conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan,” noted Taneyhill. “At 250,000 DAGRs and growing, DAGR is one of the most densely fielded systems in our Army.
DAGR will remain in service through the year 2020 and beyond, however, technology efforts are currently under development to build upon DAGR’s success with the next generation of standalone and embedded PNT/GPS receivers. These technologically advanced receivers will provide even greater performance and offer greater protections than what is possible with today’s DAGR.