Boeing, Raytheon and Harris Corporation will work together to pursue future development and sustainment work on the Air Force GPS Control Segment Sustainment (GCSS) contract. The control segment is the ground hardware and software that controls the space vehicles and their payloads.

The GCSS contract will extend the current GPS Operational Control Segment program until it transitions to the next-generation control segment, GPS OCX, which is currently being developed by Raytheon with support from Boeing.

The GPS OCX program will provide more secure, accurate, and precise satellite navigation around the world for military, humanitarian and commercial applications.

"This team brings together the best of industry in the current GPS sustainment effort and ensures a smooth transition to the next-generation system," said Sparky Olsen, director, Boeing Mission Operations.

"The Boeing, Raytheon, and Harris team is a natural fit for the GCSS effort because it leverages our current working relationship with Boeing and ensures an absolutely seamless transition from the current system to OCX," said Ray Kolibaba, Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems vice president and OCX program manager.

The U.S. Air Force's Ogden Air Logistics Center (ALC) in Ogden, Utah, also will join the GPS team under a new Public Private Partnership arrangement. The ALC will be a critical partner supporting software sustainment at the Boeing Mission Operations Support Center (BMOSC) in Colorado Springs.

The BMOSC reflects an investment of $35 million by Boeing and the Air Force over more than 10 years to create an enduring partnership that fosters development, testing, and fielding of both hardware and software solutions to support Air Force Space Command.

This partnership has continually achieved outstanding mission availability and mission assurance, delivering very high accuracy position, navigation, and timing signals to U.S. warfighters as well as to the global GPS user community.

Other members of the Boeing-led GCSS team include CRGT, Infinity Systems Engineering, Boecore, Expert Methods Inc., a.i. Solutions, and RT Logic.