Pentagon to re-examine Air Force GPS OCX program

WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Pentagon officials are not satisfied with the Operation Control Segment program, and will meet with U.S. Air Force officials to discuss other options.

Department of Defense undersecretary for acquisition Frank Kendall told reporters on Wednesday the GPS OCX program is not "where we'd like it to be."

"There is a range of things we could do," Kendall said. "I don't want to say much more than that, but if you can imagine the range of things we'd do they are probably all under consideration at this point."

Space News reported last month that Raytheon's efforts to produce a ground system to control the next-generation GPS satellites were facing challenges, including several milestone delays.

"I want OCX to succeed desperately," Gen. John Hyten, commander of Air Force Space Command said. "But I also told [the acquisition community] if you see OCX not succeeding then you need to tell me that, and some of these low-level options we're working in the background, we'll up the priority on those. We'll make sure we can go a different direction."

The contract for the program, valued at approximately $1.6 billion in 2014, was awarded to Raytheon in 2010. The company completed launch readiness exercises in November. The program aims to improve cybersecurity for Lockheed Martin's GPS III to support both military and civilian uses.