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[Digital Today reporter Hong Jin-joo] The U.S. Department of Defense has formally terminated OCX (Operational Control Segment), the next-generation ground control system project for the military GPS navigation network.
On the 20th (local time), tech outlet Ars Technica reported the U.S. Space Force said the Defense Department decided on the 17th to end OCX after persistent technical problems.
OCX was intended to be the next-generation GPS operations control system — a large-scale effort encompassing the software, ground control stations and upgrades to global monitoring sites to process new signals from GPS III satellites and provide command-and-control of the constellation. The department awarded the work to Raytheon (now RTX) in 2010, targeting a 2016 completion and an estimated program cost of 5.5 trillion KRW (approximately $4.125 billion). By termination, government spending had risen to roughly 9 trillion KRW (approximately $6.75 billion), and total completion costs were estimated to approach 11 trillion KRW (approximately $8.25 billion).
The program missed its schedule and exceeded its budget by a wide margin. Raytheon, which rebranded as RTX, did not deliver the system to the Space Force until 2025, and subsequent integration testing showed the system was not ready for operational use. Colonel Steven Hops of Mission Delta 31, which operates the GPS constellation, said the program encountered \”broad system issues,\” and that despite repeated fixes, integrating OCX into operational timelines proved effectively impossible.
The Space Force said the problems were more than mere delays: they revealed risks that could affect both military and civilian GPS capabilities. According to Col. Hops, faults identified in certain functional areas could endanger capabilities currently in service.
As a result, the Defense Department and Space Force will shift focus to upgrading and modernizing the decades-old legacy GPS control system. Under an Architecture Evolution Plan, the Space Force has already applied some performance improvements and plans to incrementally enable new satellite features — including the military M-code signal, which offers stronger resistance to jamming and spoofing.
The move also reflects a broader shift in Space Force acquisition strategy: moving away from long-term investments in single, monolithic programs toward a phased, capability-based approach that breaks functions into smaller increments for faster deployment. Tom Ainsworth, the Air Force’s deputy assistant secretary for space acquisition and integration, emphasized the need to deliver capabilities quickly rather than rely on complex, all-in-one systems.
Follow-on work is already under way. Earlier this month, the Space Force awarded Lockheed Martin a $100.5 million (approximately 134 billion KRW) contract to begin upgrading ground systems to support initial operations of the next-generation GPS IIIF satellites. GPS IIIF launches are scheduled to begin next year, and the final GPS III-series satellite also awaits launch.
OCX had long been one of the Defense Department’s most chronically delayed programs. The department briefly considered canceling the project in 2016 but continued after a restructuring. At the time, the U.S. Government Accountability Office identified poor acquisition decisions and persistently high software defect rates as root causes. After 16 years, the program concluded without delivering a dedicated control system for the newest satellites, leaving the military to extend and upgrade the legacy control architecture instead.
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