While many military space systems take years to get from the drawing board to the point where they are providing operational capabilities to troops in the field, some new capabilities are being developed over the course of a few weeks or months. In late 2006, for example, U.S. Air Force Space Command successfully used existing technology to find a solution for boosting the accuracy of its guided munitions. Developed under the Tactical Exploitation of National Capabilities (TEN-CAP) program, this new technique using GPS technology paid off as soon as January 2007 when it was used in Iraq to foil the work of terrorists planting improvised explosive devices.
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