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.
Dirty hydraulic fluid and freezing weather led to the loss of an F-35 stealth fighter in Alaska this winter when its landing gear froze and convinced the aircraft’s computer that it was on the ground rather than in-flight.