{"id":67615,"date":"2017-08-02T21:22:22","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T13:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/more-delays-in-line-for-air-forces-gps-ocx-and-fab-t\/"},"modified":"2017-08-02T21:22:22","modified_gmt":"2017-08-02T13:22:22","slug":"more-delays-in-line-for-air-forces-gps-ocx-and-fab-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/more-delays-in-line-for-air-forces-gps-ocx-and-fab-t\/","title":{"rendered":"More Delays in Line for Air Force\u2019s GPS OCX and FAB-T"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n
\"GPS
A GPS 3 satellite. Photo: Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Two troubled U.S. Air Force<\/strong> space-related acquisition efforts \u2014 the Global Positioning System (GPS) Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX) and the Family of Advanced Beyond Line of Sight Terminal (FAB-T) \u2014 have experienced another round of delays. The Air Force said in a statement late July 31 that it expects OCX Blocks 1 and 2 to be ready to transition to operations in April 2022, nine months later than previously planned.<\/p>\n

The extension follows a two-year delay announced last year. Block 1 will control new GPS 3 satellites and existing GPS 2 spacecraft, while Block 2 will enable a new, more secure military signal called M-code.<\/p>\n

The OCX program has been plagued for years by cost overruns, schedule delays and problems with cybersecurity, software and systems engineering. The latest delay is \u201cdue in part to realized program technical risks, and includes hardware and software obsolescence refreshes,\u201d the Air Force said.<\/p>\n

A high-level Defense Acquisition Board was scheduled to conduct a Milestone B review in June to formally consider the program\u2019s latest approach and cost estimate, but the results of the review have not yet been announced. The Air Force\u2019s latest public estimate of OCX acquisition costs is $5.4 billion.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Reps. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the House Armed Services Committee\u2019s strategic forces panel, said in a joint statement on July 31 that FAB-T, which has been in development since 2002, \u201cwill now be delayed another year.\u201d The lawmakers did not elaborate, and the Air Force had no immediate comment. The FAB-T program is supposed to field terminals for using Advanced Extremely High Frequency communication satellites.<\/p>\n

Raytheon<\/strong>, the prime contractor for FAB-T and OCX, declined requests from Via Satellite\u2019s<\/em> sister publication Defense Daily<\/em> to comment on both programs.<\/p>\n

Rogers and Cooper said the delays in the two programs cast \u201cgreater urgency on the debate on space reorganization.\u201d The lawmakers have included a proposal in the House-passed fiscal year 2018 defense authorization bill that would create a space corps in the Air Force Department. \u201cThe current system is wasting billions of dollars and failing to deliver capability to the warfighter,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Air Force leaders oppose the proposed space corps, saying it would add complexity to their space efforts and slow their ability to adapt to an increasingly contested space domain. The service has moved to implement other changes, including forming a new directorate to integrate space operations.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published on <\/i>Defense Daily<\/i>, a Via Satellite sister publication covering the global defense market intelligence in land, sea, air, and space initiatives.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A GPS 3 satellite. Photo: Lockheed Martin Two troubled U.S. Air Force space-related acquisition efforts \u2014 the Global Positioning System (GPS) Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX) and the Family of Advanced Beyond Line of Sight Terminal (FAB-T) \u2014 have experienced another round of delays. The Air Force said in a statement late July 31 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67618,"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-67615","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\/67615"}],"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=67615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}