Defense Advanced GPS Receiver

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The Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR)

The Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR) is a handheld GPS receiver used by the United States Department of Defense and select foreign military services. It is a military-grade, dual-frequency receiver, and has the security hardware necessary to decode the encrypted P(Y)-code GPS signal.

Manufactured by Rockwell Collins, the DAGR entered production in March 2004, with the 40,000th unit delivered in September 2005. It was estimated by the news source Defense Industry Daily that, by the end of 2006, the USA and various allies around the world had issued almost $300 million worth of DAGR contracts, and ordered almost 125,000 units.^[1] It replaced the Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver (PLGR), which was first fielded in 1994.

Due to the COMSEC electronics inside the DAGR, it is against US federal law for any individual or organization not authorized by the National Security Agency (NSA) to purchase or be in possession of the device. When devices are no longer useful or operational, they are to be returned to an NSA-approved vendor (usually the original supplier), where they are destroyed.

[edit] Features

Graphical screen, with the ability to overlay map images.
12-channel continuous satellite tracking for "all-in-view" operation.
Simultaneous L1/L2 dual frequency GPS signal reception.
Capable of Direct-Y code acquisition
Cold start first fix in less than 100 seconds.
Extended performance in a diverse jamming environment.
- 41 dB J/S maintaining state 5 tracking.
- 24 dB during initial C/A code acquisition.
Utilizes Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM).
Selective Availability/Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) compatible (currently version 3.2).
Wide Area GPS Enhancement (WAGE) compatible.
Resistant to multi-path effects.
Can be used as survey for weapons systems
Fielded to the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and select foreign military forces
Designed to fit in a Battle Dress Uniform's 2-clip ammo pouch
Approximate cost to government per unit to acquire: $1,832^[2]

[edit] Compared with previous receiver (PLGR)

Parameter	PLGR	DAGR
Frequency	Single (L1 only)	Dual (L1/L2)
Security	PPS-SM	SAASM
Display	Text only	GUI w/maps
Satellites (Channels)	5	12 (all in view)
Anti-Jam	24 dB	41 dB
TTFF	6 minutes	100 seconds
TTSF (Time To Second Fix)	60 sec	< 22 sec
Weight	2.75 lbs	0.94 lbs
Size	9.5" tall, 4.1" wide, 2.6" thick	6.4" tall, 3.5" wide, 1.6" thick (Fits in 2-clip ammo pouch)
Battery Life	13 hrs (8 batteries)	14 hrs (4 batteries)
Reliability	2000 hr	5000 hr