Air Force extends contract work for ground control system

Raytheon Co. has received a $23.5 million contract extension to perform additional risk-reduction activities for the Air Force’s new ground control system.

Under the award, Raytheon will identify and mitigate program risks and create a road map that will keep the Air Force’s next-generation Global Positioning System Operational Control Segment (GPS OCX) on budget and on schedule.

The Raytheon GPS OCX team expects a final request for proposals in the next few months, company officials said.

"We are working with our customer to ensure that we have the lowest risk program going forward,” said Bob Canty, Raytheon GPS OCX vice president and program manager. “What's critically important on this program is to be able to deliver our team’s commitments fully and on time.”

The Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base awarded the original contract to produce the new control segment for current and future GPS systems in November 2007.

The Raytheon team includes ITT, Boeing Co., Infinity Systems Engineering, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SRI International and Braxton Technologies.