The U.S. Air Force has selected Raytheon for an initial contract of $886 million to develop a new element of the Global Positioning System to improve the accuracy of information from GPS satellites.
The contract represents the first two development blocks of the advanced control segment, which will have a significant impact on GPS capabilities. The OCX will include anti-jam capabilities and improved security, accuracy and reliability and will be based on a modern service-oriented architecture to integrate government and industry open-system standards.
The OCX will dramatically affect GPS command, control and mission capabilities and make it easier for the operations team to run the current GPS block II and all future GPS satellites.
The GPS, a satellite-based radio navigation system for the military and the public, comprises three major segments: the user segment, the space segment and the control segment, which includes a master control station and ground antennas.