It is critical to note that ICD-GPS-153 is a legacy protocol for the P(Y) code. The U.S. Space Force is currently transitioning to GPS III and GPS IIIF satellites, which introduce M-Code (Military Code).

| Feature | ICD-GPS-153 (P(Y) Code) | M-Code (ICD-GPS-240) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Security | Encryption (W-code) | Cryptography + Spreading code separation | | Power | Same as civil (+3 dB) | +20 dB (spot beam) | | Jamming resistance | Moderate | Very High (designed for contested environments) | | Signal structure | Legacy BPSK | BOC (Binary Offset Carrier) | | Backward compatibility | N/A | New receivers required |

While M-Code is superior, ICD-GPS-153 remains operational because:

If you are reading a specific journal article or a forum post mentioning "ICD-GPS-153," it is almost certainly a typographical error.

Enable reliable exchange of GPS-derived position and timing data between systems using ICD-GPS-153 baseline messages, with added resilience, authentication, and extension hooks for future message types.