COLORADO SPRINGS — Lockheed Martin’s new contract worth up to $105 million for modernizing the ground control system for Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites covers not just the birds on orbit today, but also early operations for the future GPS IIIF variants, according to a company announcement Thursday.
“The new contract expands on a decade of work under the Space Force’s Architecture Evolution Plan, during which Lockheed Martin has steadily modernized the GPS ground segment. Under the agreement, the company will support launch, early orbit, and disposal operations for GPS IIIF space vehicles,” the announcement elaborated.
The contract, awarded April 8, comes as the Department of the Air Force considers cancelling the long-delayed, over-budget Next-Generation Operational Control System (OCX) system being built by RTX. As Air and Space Forces Magazine first reported, the Space Force has provided Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey with an analysis that compares options going forward, including cancelling OCX in favor of simply continuing to modernize the Architecture Evolution Plan (AEP)…