Nearly 15 years and $8 billion after launching a project to build a completely new ground system to manage GPS satellites, the Space Force is pouring another $196 million into its long-delayed GPS Operating Control Systems, known as OCX.
Contractor RTX, however, may be wearing out its welcome with Space Force leaders. The latest contract modification, issued Nov. 27, is “an undefinitized change order modification,” a change that does not represent a new option award, a new program, nor an engineering change proposal.
Indeed, it’s possible RTX would not even be eligible for such awards, given its performance on the OCX program. Originally foreseen as a six-year contract in 2010, with delivery in 2016, only Block 0 of OCX is currently in use. Blocks 1 and 2 remain unfinished, even though, according to a Department of Defense contract announcement, the Pentagon has now spent almost $4.49 billion on them.
The Government Accountability Office now estimates DOD has spent more than $8 billion on all the blocks of OCX, includig $433 million on Block 3F meant for future GPS IIIF satellites. The program has drawn the ire of watchdogs, lawmakers, and the Space Force’s top acquisition official, Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition, who has called OCX “troubled,” an “albatross,” and a “problem child.”
Calvelli has said repeatedly he wants to get the program across the finish line and into operations, but that now seems impossible on his watch, as the current administration will turn over in January with the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump.
In early 2023, Calvelli said he wanted to field OCX that year. By November, he pushed the timeline to summer 2024. In February 2024, the Office of the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation estimated that the Space Force would not field OCX until March 2025 and not operationally accept it until July.
In May 2024, Calvelli told lawmakers in written testimony that he was hoping to transition the program to operations by spring 2025. In September, the Government Accountability Office said the Space Force wasn’t expecting final acceptance of the software until December 2025, and that was on a timeline with no margin for schedule slip.
Calvelli and other officials have said the program has struggled because it attempted to create an entirely new, very large software system all in one go, a practice now largely abandoned in favor of rapid, iterative updates. Developmental testing has been slow, and even after RTX delivers the program to the Space Force, there will be months of operational testing.
RTX Space
RTX, formerly Raytheon, has struggled with Space Force programs. In March, RTX pulled out of a $250 million agreement to build seven low-Earth-orbit missile tracking satellites for the Space Development Agency after determining it could not make a profit on the effort. In June, Space Systems Command dropped RTX from a planned missile warning/missile tracking satellite constellation in medium-Earth orbit. RTX officials have said they no longer want to be prime contractors for space systems.
Calvelli, who has led a charge for more accountability in space acquisition, has declined to say if RTX is on the Contractor Responsibility Watch List—which identifies companies not meeting cost or schedule goals on space programs. Space Systems Command has consistently declined to comment on that list, but last month SSC boss Lt. Gen. Philip A. Garrant told reporters “there is a company on the watch list today.”
“I won’t say who it is,” he added. “Those authorities reside with me right now. The [2025 National Defense Authorization Act] moves those authorities to the service acquisition executive, and Mr. Calvelli has indicated he would intend to use it perhaps more frequently.”
Garrant confirmed that the unnamed contractor is on high-priority programs for the Space Force, and said its placement on the watch list “has absolutely worked as intended: We’ve seen significant improvement in performance and attention at the most senior levels of the corporation.”
Garrant offered no other details. Speculation suggests RTX as the most likely candidate, especially since Garrant specifically ruled out Lockheed Martin, saying that firm is not on the list.
RTX declined to comment.
Under the 2018 law establishing the watch list, the Space Force cannot “award a contract to, execute an engineering change proposal with, or exercise an option” with contractors so designated. The contract change announced Nov. 27 does not meet that description.