Navigation and control experts at RTX Corp. are moving forward with an upgrade to the Global Position System (GPS) satellite navigation system.
Officials of the U.S. Space Command’s Space Systems Command at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., announced a $196.7 million order to the RTX Raytheon segment in Aurora, Colo., late last month for the GPS Next Generation Operational Control System, better-known as GPS OCX.
Twice as many satellites
Together with next-generation satellites, GPS OCX will provide improved accuracy of the current GPS and will fly more than twice as many satellites, RTX Raytheon officials say. Those additional satellites will increase coverage in hard-to-reach areas such as urban canyons and mountainous terrain.
The current GPS uses space and ground control. The space segment includes orbiting GPS satellites, and the control segment has ground stations that are track, monitor, and update the satellites. The Raytheon GPS OCX will be an enhanced ground-control segment.
GPS, is a network of orbiting satellites that broadcasts a continuous stream of precise position details to Earth, where it enables GPS receivers to determine the exact locations of GPS receivers across the world.
Cyber security
The GPS OCX upgrade has the highest level of cyber security protections of any U.S. military space-ground system, Raytheon officials say. The cyber-secure system will have improved accuracy with better international availability as well as globally deployed modernized receivers with anti-jam capabilities.
GPS OCX Block zero happened in fall 2017, and supported first launch of modernized GPS III satellites in 2018. Block 1 will control legacy and modernized satellites and signals, while Block 2 will add operational control of new international and modernized military code signals.
This order brings the total value of the contract to nearly $4.5 billion. RTX Raytheon will do the work in Aurora, Colo., and should be finished by November N2025.
For more information contact RTX Raytheon online at www.rtx.com/raytheon, or Space Systems Command at www.ssc.spaceforce.mil/About-Us/About-Us.