{"id":43295,"date":"2026-04-21T19:18:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/pentagon-pulls-the-plug-on-one-of-the-militarys-most-troubled-space-programs\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:18:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:18:45","slug":"pentagon-pulls-the-plug-on-one-of-the-militarys-most-troubled-space-programs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/pentagon-pulls-the-plug-on-one-of-the-militarys-most-troubled-space-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon pulls the plug on one of the military\u2019s most troubled space programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon has canceled a ground control system for the US military\u2019s GPS satellite navigation network after the program\u2019s enduring problems \u201cproved insurmountable,\u201d the US Space Force announced in a press release Monday.<\/p>\n

The Global Positioning System Next-Generation Operational Control System, known by the acronym OCX, was officially canceled by Michael Duffey, the Pentagon\u2019s defense acquisition executive, on Friday, April 17, the Space Force said.<\/p>\n

The decision to terminate the OCX program ends a 16-year, multibillion-dollar effort to design, test, and deliver a command and control system for the military\u2019s constellation of GPS navigation satellites. The program consisted of software to handle new signals from the latest generation of GPS satellites, GPS III, which started launching in 2018, along with two master control stations and modifications to ground monitoring stations around the world.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon awarded the OCX contract to Raytheon, now known as RTX Corporation, in 2010, with a timetable for completion in 2016 at a cost of $3.7 billion. Budget projections to finish the program grew to nearly $8 billion, nearly as much as the cost of an entire fleet of some 30 new GPS satellites.<\/p>\n

The schedule for OCX extended out a decade longer than anticipated. RTX finally delivered the control system to the Space Force last year, but further tests revealed it was still not ready for GPS operations. Ars reported on the long-running issues with OCX last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discovered problems\u201d<\/h2>\n

\u201cRegrettably, extensive system issues arose during the integrated testing of OCX with the broader GPS enterprise,\u201d said Col. Stephen Hobbs, commander of the Space Force\u2019s Mission Delta 31, which operates the GPS constellation. \u201cDespite repeated collaborative approaches by the entire government and contractor team, the challenges of onboarding the system in an operationally relevant timeline proved insurmountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discovered problems across a broad range of capability areas that would put current GPS military and civilian capabilities at risk,\u201d Hobbs said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cRTX is aware of the US Government decision regarding the GPS OCX program,\u201d an RTX spokesperson said in a statement. \u201cRaytheon delivered the system in 2025 and has continued to support the US Space Force in post-delivery activities. We remain committed to supporting our customers and will work closely with the government on the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Artist\u2019s concept of a GPS III satellite in orbit.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n Lockheed Martin<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Instead of moving forward with OCX, the Space Force will continue retooling the GPS network\u2019s decades-old legacy control system. Some of these improvements on the old system have already been implemented through an \u201cArchitecture Evolution Plan,\u201d allowing the Space Force to begin taking advantage of GPS satellite upgrades that originally required OCX. The GPS satellite upgrades include new military-grade \u201cM-code\u201d signals more resilient to jamming, spoofing, and other threats now routinely encountered in warfare.<\/p>\n

Now, instead of using OCX to unlock the latest GPS upgrades like M-code, the Space Force said it has \u201cconfidence that further upgrades to GPS ground systems\u201d will continue to \u201cdeliver new capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, we analyzed the work remaining on OCX and compared this with the current GPS control system capability,\u201d Hobbs said. \u201cThe analysis revealed additional investment in OCX was no longer the best solution for protecting and advancing GPS capabilities. Instead, we will continue enhancing the current control system to operate the GPS satellite constellation.\u201d<\/p>\n

A harbinger of OCX\u2019s cancellation was the Space Force\u2019s award of a $105 million contract to Lockheed Martin earlier this month. The contract covers ground system upgrades to support initial operations of the military\u2019s next-generation GPS IIIF satellites, due to begin launching next year. The last of the Space Force\u2019s GPS III-series navigation satellites is scheduled for launch this week. Lockheed Martin manufactures the GPS III and IIIF satellites.<\/p>\n

According to the Space Force, as of January, the government had spent approximately $6.27 billion on the OCX program. This number includes direct funding to Raytheon and other expenses, such as the cost of government testing and administrative costs.<\/p>\n

The experience with OCX runs counter to the Space Force\u2019s recent emphasis on faster deliveries and commercial partnerships. \u201cIt\u2019s important we refine and update acquisition processes to prioritize rapid, incremental capability delivery versus complex \u2018all or nothing\u2019 system deliveries,\u201d said Tom Ainsworth, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon nearly canceled OCX after its development exceeded cost and schedule targets in 2016, but officials decided to proceed with OCX after restructuring the program. At the time, the Government Accountability Office blamed the OCX woes on \u201cpoor acquisition decisions\u201d and a \u201cpersistently high software development defect rate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pentagon has canceled a ground control system for the US military\u2019s GPS satellite navigation network after the program\u2019s enduring problems \u201cproved insurmountable,\u201d the US Space Force announced in a press release Monday. The Global Positioning System Next-Generation Operational Control System, known by the acronym OCX, was officially canceled by Michael Duffey, the Pentagon\u2019s defense acquisition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}