GPS World, June 2016

SYSTEM SYSTEMS OF Congress Yanks OCX Funding SecDef Must Demonstrate Its Essential Nature 8 GPS WORLD WWW GPSWORLD COM JUNE 2016 Policy and System Developments GPS Galileo GLONASS BeiDou T he U S Senate Armed Services Committee withheld the full amount requested by the Pentagon for Fiscal Year FY 2017 for OCX the Next Generation Operational Control System ground control for GPS heretofore deemed necessary to operate the next generation of satellites GPS III The Pentagon had asked for 394 million in the upcoming funding cycle to enable Raytheon to continue work on the program If allowed by Congress to continue OCX may cost as much as 53 billion and there is no certainty that the bill will not rise further The Senate committee will not release the 394 million until the Defense Department complies with the requirements of the Nunn McCurdy Act governing defense programs Otherwise Congress could act to terminate OCX The terms of the Act now require the Secretary of Defense to conduct an in depth review and then state that the program is essential to national security is more important than other programs that will have to be cut to accommodate its cost overruns and that there are no acceptable alternatives From the Defense Department point of view the new GPS III satellites are essential because of among other things their signals improved resistance to jamming and cyberattack an oftcited peril in the modern global security scenario How GPS III could be launched the first satellite is scheduled for sometime in 2017 and operated without OCX is not entirely clear although in February Lockheed Martin received a 96 million contract to provide contingency control operations for the first GPS III satellites upon launch because OCX wont be ready Raytheon and the U S Air Force announced a month ago that OCX successfully passed the first formal qualification test milestone needed to check out the system and for the early monitoring of satellites in orbit That validates the maturity of the OCX launch and checkout system according to a statement by Bill Sullivan Raytheons OCX program director Raytheon won the OCX contract in 2010 with a bid somewhat more than 15 billion The Air Force recently made its FY 2017 budget request for 393 million as part of an overall anticipated program cost of 482 billion However a Bloomberg news report states that the total cost may have risen to 53 billion A t press time the latest pair of Galileo satellites was expected to launch into orbit on May 24 the 13th and 14th satellites in the constellation A second launch is planned for this fall carrying four satellites aboard a customized Ariane 5 for the first time This would bring the count to 18 Galileo satellites in orbit by the end of the year Final Payload Delivered Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd in the United Kingdom has delivered the 22nd Galileo navigation payload to prime contractor OHB System in Bremen Germany This is SSTLs final payload under Galileo Full Operational Capability FOC Works Orders 1 and 2 We are all looking forward to the day that the new Galileo service comes on stream and we can start using it in our daily lives John Paffett director Telecommunications and Navigation SSTL BeiDou 30 over 5 China plans to launch 30 Beidou navigation satellites during the fiveyear period 2016 2020 said Ran Chengqi director of the China Satellite Navigation Office during the China Satellite Navigation Conference in early May This would realize the countrys three step strategy to build a global navigation system by 2020 A batch of 18 satellites will be launched before 2018 China and Russia have agreed to make BeiDou and GLONASS compatible and BeiDou has successfully synchronized its frequency with Galileo Chengqi added Galileo Launch and Production