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).
Upgrading the AEP to control GPS IIIF birds, also manufactured by Lockheed Martin, is a requirement that would allow the system to replace OCX in the future.
The Space Force is planning to launch the last of the GPS III satellites in early May, and Lockheed Martin has already begun production of the 22 GPS IIIF satellites with the first expected to launch next year.
OCX long has been a poster child for broken space acquisition programs. The program was originally supposed to be completed in 2016, and its price tag has risen from a projected $3.7 billion to almost $8 billion.
A spokesperson for RTX referred all comments to the Space Force A service spokesperson said that OCX Block 0 is still being used “for launch and checkout” of the GPS III satellites, while AEP is used to command and control all GPS space vehicles, including GPS IIIs.” Space News on April 2 reported that the service awarded RTX a $45 million contract to provide upgrades to that software block.
OCX Block 0 was delivered in 2017, but does not include the critical command and control capabilities and cybersecurity protections for the current GPS III birds. The AEP program was originally designed as a stopgap to fill that gap; with Lockheed Martin winning a first contract in 2016.
OCX Blocks 1 and 2 — which are supposed to provide launch, check out and command and control capabilities, and need to be up and running to be delivered — have been undergoing testing since being operationally accepted by the Space Force in July 2025. However, according to senior Space Force officials, that testing has revealed a series of serious flaws.
OCX 3F is required for launch, check out and command and control of the future GPS IIIF satellites. According to the 2025 report of the Pentagon’s Director of Test and Evaluation, RTX is supposed to deliver OCX 3F in fiscal year 2027 and the Space Force has been hoping for it to reach operational acceptance in FY28.
Thomas Ainsworth, who is performing the duties of the the Air Force Assistant Secretary for Space Acquisition and Integration told the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee on March 25 that the testing found “extensive system issues across all sub-systems, many of which have not been resolved.”
He added that for “over 15 years, the program has experienced significant technical challenges, schedule slips, and associated cost growth, putting at risk the launch and capability of future GPS satellites.”
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told the Mitchell Institute on April 1 that there are “serious issues” with OCX. “As we start to put GPS IIIF, and beyond, on orbit, we’re going to require new ground system upgrades. We want it to be cyber, secure, all those things,” he said.
