Raytheon announced Tuesday that its industry team has successfully completed a key design review of the Global Positioning System Advanced Control Segment, the next-generation ground control element for the GPS satellite constellation. Nearly 70 industry and Air Force representatives recently held the three-day software specification review at Raytheon’s facility in Aurora, Colo. “We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this important review,” said Bob Canty, Raytheon’s program manager for the control segment, which is dubbed OCX. He added, “The successful software specification review sets the foundation for the preliminary design review scheduled for spring 2011 and is an indicator of the maturity of the software and interface requirements and the operational concept for GPS OCX.” Raytheon is the prime contractor, having won the $886 million OCX contract in February.
The U.S. military is sending more fighter jets to the Middle East to step up its war with Iran, adding to what is already the largest buildup of airpower in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. For now, the operation shows little sign of coming to a quick…