Northrop Grumman said in a statement Monday that Lockheed Martin Information Services and Global Systems had become one of its industry partners in seeking to win the U.S. Air Force's Global Positioning System Next Generation Control Segment -- OCX -- Phase B contract.

The OCX project is to give mission enterprise control support for the current U.S. constellation of GPS Block II satellites and for the projected next-generation Block III ones.

Northrop Grumman said the current OCX contract for Phase A of the program is worth $160 million and is designed to restructure and upgrade the Air Force's existing GPS ground system. The company's Team OCX is proposing a block development plan for meeting the needs of the Phase B contract.

"Lockheed Martin Information Systems and Global Services is a tremendous addition to Northrop Grumman's experienced and proven team and will greatly enhance our ability to offer the customer an innovative and low-risk OCX solution that modernizes GPS command and control for effects-based operations," said Steve Bergjans, GPS OCX vice president and program manager for Northrop Grumman.

"We are pleased to join Northrop Grumman's Team OCX," said John Mengucci, president of Mission and Combat Support Solutions for Lockheed Martin. "We look forward to working side-by-side with Northrop Grumman to provide the Air Force and global users new capabilities via an outstanding combination of innovation, navigation, and timing know-how."

Northrop Grumman said that for the past three years it had backed work on upgrading satellite control segment software and hardware architecture and that it had produced new designs to satisfy the OCX performance parameters.

As well as the Lockheed Martin ISGS division based as Gaithersburg, Md., Northrop Grumman's other major partners on the project are Harris Corp. (NYSE:HRS), Melbourne, Fla.; Integral Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:ISYS), Lanham, Md.; and General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, Dayton, Ohio; along with specialty companies including Infinity Systems Engineering, Colorado Springs, Colo., and Applied Minds, Glendale, Calif., Northrop Grumman said.