Air Force Magazine

Raytheon completed the development of the latest version of the Air Force GPS III satellite control system one day before the launch of the second satellite in space.

"We will begin deploying upgraded Block 1 control station receivers to their global locations this fall, to ensure that we will have full system functionality for the US Air Force before our June contract deadline." 2021, "said Bill Sullivan, vice president of Raytheon's GPS. Next-Generation Operational Control System (OCX), said in an email from August 21.

L & # 39; Company told Air Force magazine in April She planned to start deploying Block 1 to users such as Schriever AFB, Colorado, by the end of June.

Block 1 should command and control new GPS III and IIIF satellites, as well as previous systems. OCX offers greater cybersecurity, signal strength, accuracy, and anti-jamming capability, as well as the ability to connect to more satellites and reduce the size of the operations team.

In the meantime, the Air Force is about to launch Lockheed Martin's second GPS III, known as Magellan, from Cape Canaveral AFS, Florida, on 22 August. delayed by a tension problem on the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Medium rocket. There are no outstanding issues with the pitcher, said a manager during a phone conversation on Aug. 20.

Thursday's launch marks the 29th and last use of Delta IV before ULA removes the rocket.

The first GPS III satellite was launched in December 2018. Lockheed is under contract for 10 GPS III systems and up to 22 GPS III tracking systems to enhance the current constellation. The GPS III family offers better accuracy and safer capabilities than previous versions.

Lieutenant-Colonel Maggie Sullivan, head of the Air Force's GPS III program, told reporters that the first satellite had successfully completed its verification and testing phase in July. He will move to operations later in 2019.

Raytheon said at the beginning of the year that it was fixing bugs in the initial OCX release, Block 0, between the first and second launch, with further clarifications before the launch of the third satellite in December. The company did not provide details this week on issues that were resolved before Magellan was launched and what remains to be done.

Raytheon said he considered 2019 as a pivotal year for the new control system, which was scheduled to come on stream in 2016, but had to deal with many delays and crazy costs.

"We are fully prepared for tomorrow's launch," said Bill Sullivan.

The second launch of GPS III provides OCX with a first opportunity to prove that it can simultaneously support multiple satellites in orbit during launch and subsequent system checks.

"The USAF recently conducted resistance tests simulating the control of several satellites and proving that our system can handle communication with multiple satellites," said Bill Sullivan. "It went extremely well and confirmed our desire to start tomorrow."