Next-gen GPS ground system expected to come online this summer: Calvelli

WASHINGTON — The Air Force’s space acquisition czar, Frank Calvelli, said today he expects the long-troubled Next-Generation Operational Control System (OCX) for the Space Force’s new Global Positioning System satellites to finally be up and running by June or July — more than a decade after its initially planned debut.

“I was optimistic that we put enough pressure to get something by the end of this year, [but] it looks more like it’s gonna be … spring, early summer next year that we finally get OCX into ops,” he told a conference sponsored by Aviation Week.  “Next June/July, you’ll hear that we’re over the over the hump for OCX.”

To ensure that OCX, designed to work with the GPS III constellation, can be ready by then, Calvelli said he is meeting with the program office every two weeks in order to ensure they are “micromanaging the schedule” along with the contractors.

“We continue to put that pressure on,” he stressed.

The modern, software-based satellite control system, being developed by RTX (formerly Raytheon), is designed to handle GPS III ground operations. Six GPS III satellites already have been launched, and the other four in the Space Force’s planned constellation have been delivered by prime contractor Lockheed Martin.

OCX also is needed to control use of the military-only, jam-resistance M-code by the 25 GPS satellites (of various models) now on-orbit enabled to broadcast it.

The program has had a troubled history, to say the least — including a serious Nunn-McCurdy breach back in 2016 that drew the wrath of Frank Kendall, then DoD acquisition czar and now Air Force Secretary. OCX was originally supposed to become operational in the 2011-2012 timeframe.

Back in January, Calvelli had dubbed OCX one of the handful of flailing software programs that have been “albatrosses” weighing down the Space Force for decades.

“Big software developments fail,” he explained. “You have to go to smaller systems. When we do smaller software systems and smaller tools, we’re amazing at it on the government side. So is industry. When you do these multimillion of the lines [of code] kind of traditional waterfall methodologies … for ground systems programs, we all fail. That’s got to stop.”

Another of those is ATLAS, the Advanced Tracking and Launch Analysis System, being developed by L3Harris. to replace the 1980’s-era Space Defense Operations Center (SPADOC) computer system and software. SPADOC is a foundational system for the Space Force’s space domain awareness mission, processing data from  radar and optical telescopes keeping tabs on satellites (especially those of adversaries) and dangerous space debris.

ATLAS also was supposed to become operational by the end of this year, but Calvelli said it too has been delayed until next August.

A spokesperson for RTX referred questions back to the Air Force.

“On the ATLAS program, we continue to perform and deliver our work scope, Mission Application software, on time,” a spokesperson for L3Harris said today. “The ATLAS Prime Integrator, the US [government], experienced challenges with integrating the number of subcontractors and components required to decommission SPADOC resulting in MVCR delivery moving to Aug. 24. L3Harris is focused on delivering capabilities for the MVCR [Minimum Viable Capability Release] by next August which will allow Space Operations Command to enter a Trial Period and then operationally accept the MVCR.”