The U.S. Space Force is weighing cancellation of the GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, a ground control program built by RTX, after 16 years of development and $7.6 billion in expenditure failed to deliver a fully operational system for the military’s GPS constellation.
A Space Force spokesperson confirmed that government-led testing that began in July 2025 revealed software defects requiring “substantially more time than planned to resolve.”
The Pentagon is considering canceling the “troubled” GPS OCX program, among other options, after years of delays and cost overruns—including significant software defects that arose during government-led testing. https://t.co/T6PFzMG39R
— Courtney Albon (@calbon) March 27, 2026
The service submitted its findings to Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey, the program’s milestone decision authority, who will determine the path forward.
“Continued delays to OCX put U.S. warfighters and allies at risk,” the Pentagon’s independent test office stated in its most recent annual report, noting that M-code, the military’s encrypted, jam-resistant GPS signal designed to protect positioning data against jamming and spoofing, has not been fielded for operational use.
That gap carries direct consequences. GPS jamming and spoofing intensified across the Persian Gulf following U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran on February 28, degrading navigation for military and civilian users in the region, according to CNBC.
OCX was designed to bring M-code capability to approximately 700 warfighter platforms. That capability remains undelivered.
At a March 25 House Armed Services Committee hearing, Thomas Ainsworth, the Space Force’s acting acquisition executive, described shared responsibility for the program’s failure.
“There’s been problems in program management, problems with the contractor performance, problems in system engineering, both on government and on the contractor side, over a number of years,” Ainsworth said. “It’s a very stressing program.”
RTX’s contract option expired March 31 and is not expected to be extended in full, SpaceNews reported.
Pentagon weighing termination of Raytheon GPS ground control contract after years of delays https://t.co/7JegIB7WxY pic.twitter.com/3XsyLJzLlY
— SpaceNews (@SpaceNews_Inc) March 30, 2026
Officials are evaluating whether to integrate usable OCX components into the Architecture Evolution Plan, or AEP, a legacy ground system operated by Lockheed Martin that currently commands the full GPS constellation.
RTX said the Space Force “accepted delivery of a mission-capable system in 2025” and that the company “is working alongside the government to address any post-delivery concerns.”
