After 16 Years and $8 Billion, the Military's New GPS Software Doesn't Work

Thursday, April 02, 2026

Last year, just before the Fourth of July holiday, the US Space Force officially took ownership of a new operating system for the GPS navigation network ...

Posted by LampLighter at 02:33 PM | 6 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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Although RTX Corporation delivered the GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System to the Space Force last July, the ground segment remains nonoperational.

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-- Ars Technica (@arstechnica.com) Mar 30, 2026 at 4:26 PM

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More from the article ...

... The GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, is designed for command and control of the military's constellation of more than 30 GPS satellites. It consists of software to handle new signals and jam-resistant capabilities of the latest generation of GPS satellites, GPS III, which started launching in 2018. The ground segment also includes two master control stations and upgrades to ground monitoring stations around the world, among other hardware elements.

RTX Corporation, formerly known as Raytheon, won a Pentagon contract in 2010 to develop and deliver the control system. The program was supposed to be complete in 2016 at a cost of $3.7 billion. Today, the official cost for the ground system for the GPS III satellites stands at $7.6 billion. RTX is developing an OCX augmentation projected to cost more than $400 million to support a new series of GPS IIIF satellites set to begin launching next year, bringing the total effort to $8 billion.

Although RTX delivered OCX to the Space Force last July, the ground segment remains nonoperational. Nine months later, the Pentagon may soon call it quits on the program. Thomas Ainsworth, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, told Congress last week that OCX is still struggling. ...

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-04-01 12:19 AM | Reply

16 years?

Obama's Fault!

#2 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-04-02 06:04 PM | Reply

Last century in the Balkans I used the first issued GPS devices.

They were sort of bigger than today's notebooks with a thick short antenna: www.reforger-military.com.

Years later in the Middle East, I used the updated versions which were smaller.

Got lost each time I went on a mission using GPS.

So, I just went with maps, the sun, and dead reckoning, and I survived.

I kept my GPS device in my vehicle as I figured I would use it as a weapon in hand-to-hand combat, throwing it at my enemy as we closed in on each other.

"Take that, heathen!"

#3 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-04-02 07:18 PM | Reply

"I kept my GPS device in my vehicle as I figured I would use it as a weapon in hand-to-hand combat, throwing it at my enemy as we closed in on each other."

Yeah. I remember them too. They were all different and even as an equipment specialist tech even I had trouble figuring out how to use them much less teach others.

#4 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-04-03 02:14 PM | Reply

Hi Marine:

I seem to remember the GPS device being a bit awkward and bulky to use, needing two hands.

When I used the darned thing to obtain an exact ten-digit grid coordinate for a potential SOF raid on a PIFWC, a local asked me what I was doing.

"Oh, I'm just doing a standard check for radiation with my new-fangled Geiger counter. We're all OK here."

I also recall asking the guys smarter than me in the TOC how the GPS can be so exact if my target is on the seventh floor of the municipal building.

What about the floors below and above him?

I never got an answer about that.

#5 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-04-03 03:12 PM | Reply

We deliberately hamstrung civilian GPS to within 10 or was it 25 meter accuracy, in response to 9/11. Military can still get the higher resolution GPS data.

#6 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-04-03 03:57 PM | Reply