A radome at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado. Photo: U.S. Air Force/Emily E. Amyotte

[Via Satellite 04-14-2016] Raytheon, prime contractor for the U.S. Air Force‘s Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System (GPS OCX) announced April 12 that the ground segment system passed the first formal qualification test milestone on March 4. Working with the Air Force, Raytheon completed the Configuration Item Qualification Test (CIQT) milestone for the Launch and Checkout System (LCS), which provides launch and early orbit checkout capabilities for the modernized GPS 3 satellites and implements 77 percent of the cybersecurity capabilities for the overall OCX program. Raytheon and the Air Force conducted the testing in a representative operational environment with a government-provided GPS 3 satellite simulator.GPS OCX is one of the Air Force’s most troubled programs and has been the subject of public criticism by Department of Defense (DOD) leadership. According to the Pentagon’s Selected Acquisition Report, OCX costs rose $586 million, or 16 percent in 2015, mainly due to cost overruns.

“The completion of this test milestone validates the maturity of the OCX launch and checkout system,” said Bill Sullivan, GPS OCX program director for Raytheon. “As a result of strong collaboration with the Air Force, we were able to demonstrate the system’s performance and increase confidence in the program’s path ahead.”

The next major milestone is GPS OCX’s Factory Qualification Test (FQT), which will be at the integrated system level and is scheduled to occur this summer.