Pentagon Finally Admits $6.27 Billion GPS Control System Was a Lost Cause

The Pentagon has officially canceled the Global Positioning System Next-Generation Operational Control System, known as OCX, after its enduring problems "proved insurmountable." The US Space Force announced the termination on Monday, ending a 16-year, multibillion-dollar effort to design, test, and deliver a command and control system for the military's GPS navigation satellites.

The decision was made by Michael Duffey, the Pentagon’s defense acquisition executive, on Friday, April 17. 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.

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. The schedule 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. "Regrettably, extensive system issues arose during the integrated testing of OCX with the broader GPS enterprise," said Col. Stephen Hobbs, commander of the Space Force’s Mission Delta 31. "Despite repeated collaborative approaches by the entire government and contractor team, the challenges of onboarding the system in an operationally relevant timeline proved insurmountable."

An RTX spokesperson stated, "RTX is aware of the US Government decision regarding the GPS OCX program. Raytheon 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."

Instead of moving forward with OCX, the Space Force will continue retooling the GPS network’s decades-old legacy control system. Some improvements have already been implemented through an "Architecture Evolution Plan," allowing the Space Force to begin taking advantage of GPS satellite upgrades that originally required OCX, including new military-grade "M-code" signals more resilient to jamming and spoofing.

A harbinger of OCX’s cancellation was the Space Force’s award of a $105 million contract to Lockheed Martin earlier this month for ground system upgrades to support initial operations of the next-generation GPS IIIF satellites, due to begin launching next year. Lockheed Martin manufactures the GPS III and IIIF satellites.

According to the Space Force, as of January, the government had spent approximately $6.27 billion on the OCX program. This includes direct funding to Raytheon and other expenses like government testing and administrative costs.

The experience runs counter to the Space Force’s recent emphasis on faster deliveries. "It’s important we refine and update acquisition processes to prioritize rapid, incremental capability delivery versus complex 'all or nothing' system deliveries," said Tom Ainsworth, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration.

The Pentagon nearly canceled OCX after its development exceeded cost and schedule targets in 2016, but officials decided to proceed after restructuring the program. At the time, the Government Accountability Office blamed the woes on "poor acquisition decisions" and a "persistently high software development defect rate."