Lockheed Martin has joined the Northrop Grumman-led team that is competing against Raytheon to supply the Air Force’s next-generation Global Positioning System ground control segment, known as OCX. Lockheed Martin is a “tremendous addition,” said Steve Bergjans, Northrop Grumman’s GPS OCX program manager, said in the company’s April 28 release. “We are pleased to join Northrop Grumman’s Team OCX,” said Vicki Schmanske, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of Space Command and Control Systems. The OCX will control GPS Block II and future Block III satellites. Both Northrop Grumman and Raytheon are operating under $160 million Phase A contracts awarded in November 2007. Raytheon announced March 28 that its team has completed the system requirements review of its OCX concept.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
