Article Posted on : - Mar 02, 2010

A File Photo.

COLORADO (BNS): The United States Air Force (USAF) has awarded Raytheon Company $886 million contract to develop the hi-tech next-generation Global Positioning System (GPS).

According to a news release by Raytheon, the Company will be developing such a programme which will improve the security, accuracy and reliability of the GPS satellites.

"We are excited to partner with the Air Force to provide the best-value GPS control system for the future," said Lynn Dugle, president of Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business, as reported in the release.

The advanced control segment (OCX) is the prime and most critical programme for the combat forces. It will have a significant impact on the GPS capabilities. The OCX system will include anti-jam capabilities and improved security, accuracy and reliability and will be based on a modern service-oriented architecture to integrate government and industry open-system standards.

"The OCX concept was created to separate the control and space segments," said Bob Canty, GPS OCX vice president and program manager for Raytheon.

The report also said that big companies like Boeing, ITT, Braxton Technologies, Infinity Systems Engineering and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will also be a part of the development programme.