(Bloomberg) -- A month before its planned delivery after years of delay and cost growth, RTX Corp.’s $7.6 billion ground network to control GPS satellites is still marred by problems that may further stall its acceptance by the US Space Force, congressional auditors said Monday.
RTX’s system of 17 ground stations for current and improved GPS satellites was supposed to be ready by October, when it would undergo a series of intense Space Force tests to assess whether it can be declared operational by December 2025. The system continues to draw the ire of lawmakers because it’s running more than seven years late in a development phase that’s about 73% costlier than initial projections.
Two rounds of testing by the company have been “marked by significant challenges that drove delays to the program’s schedule,” the Government Accountability Office said Monday in a broad review of the US military’s GPS program, including improvements intended to block jamming by adversaries.
The Next Generation Operational Control System, known as OCX, is intended to provide improvements, including access to more secure, jam-resistant software for the military’s use of the GPS navigation system, which is also depended on by civilians worldwide.
“The program faces challenges from product deficiencies” that “create a risk of further delay,” the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency told the GAO, adding that it expects RTX at the earliest to deliver OCX by December.
The delay’s costs are borne by taxpayers under the so-called cost-plus development contract that RTX’s predecessor Raytheon received in 2010. In 2016, a top Air Force general called it the Pentagon’s “No. 1 troubled program.”
The new ground system is needed to take full advantage of improved GPS III satellites being built by Lockheed Martin Corp. They promise increased accuracy for navigation, a signal compatible with similar European satellites and improved resistance against cyberattacks.
Government program officials told the GAO the backlog of deficiencies for the ground system is “within expectations since an uptick was anticipated during qualification testing” and “the number of new identified deficiencies is stabilizing,” according to the report.
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