ATC
Northrop has GPS-aided stellar INS
Northrop Grumman delivered the first production LN-120G GPS-aided stellar-inertial navigation system to the U.S.

Northrop Grumman delivered the first production LN-120G GPS-aided stellar-inertial navigation system to the U.S. Air Force last month, to begin the update of the service’s 31 RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft.

For over three decades the RC-135 has used the mechanical gyro LN-120, but the new model greatly increases accuracy. As well as GPS updates, the LN-120G’s inertial systems can be updated by star-tracking. Once the system locates a star it refines the inertial system’s positional information, and by repeating this process it provides heading information accurate to 20 arc seconds, the highest accuracy currently available.

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