Raytheon has successfully completed the first qualification test milestone for the US Air Force's (USAF) Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System (GPS OCX), which offers improvements to the GPS, the company announced on 12 April.
The milestone was the Configuration Item Qualification Test (CIQT) for the Launch and Checkout System (LCS). The LCS offers launch and early orbit checkout capabilities for the modernised GPS III satellites. It also implements 77% of the cybersecurity capabilities for the overall OCX programme.
With the clearing of CIQT, the LCS has moved towards factory qualification test, which will be conducted at the integrated system level in summer 2016. The CIQT took place in a representative operational environment using a government-sourced GPS III satellite simulator.
Bill Sullivan, program director, GPS OCX, Raytheon, said: ‘The completion of this test milestone validates the maturity of the OCX launch and checkout system. As a result of strong collaboration with the USAF, we were able to demonstrate the system's performance and increase confidence in the programme's path ahead.’
Raytheon is developing GPS OCX under a contract with the USAF space and missile systems centre to replace the current GPS operational control system.
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