GPS World

Tag: Raytheon Coyote UAV

  • USSF terminates GPS OCX program

    USSF terminates GPS OCX program

    The GPS Next Generation Operational Control System program of the U.S. Space Force has been cancelled by the Defense Acquisition Executive, based upon the recommendation of the acting service acquisition executive.

    OCX was intended to update command and control of the GPS satellite constellation, replacing the current system, known as the Architecture Evolution Plan (AEP), as well as replacing the Launch, Anomaly and Disposal Operations system. However, the program was unable to deliver needed capabilities on an operationally relevant timeline at an acceptable level of risk to meet the GPS constellation modernization needs.

    “It’s important we refine and update acquisition processes to prioritize rapid, incremental capability delivery versus complex ‘all or nothing’ system deliveries,” said Acting Service Acquisition Executive Tom Ainsworth. “The Department of War [Defense] has made clear that we need to deliver warfighting capability at a faster rate. We must continue to work with industry to meet the needs of our warfighters as we focus on delivering the right technology on the right timeline to enhance our capabilities and maintain space superiority.”

    In July 2025, following a multi-year regimen of factory testing, the Space Force contractually accepted OCX from RTX (Raytheon) and began extensive integrated systems testing to resolve liens carried over from factory testing, as well as to ensure the system could operate within the broader GPS enterprise of ground systems, satellites, and user equipment.

    As of January 2026, the program cost was approximately $6.27 billion which included complete Raytheon funding to date and other government costs, such as the cost of government testing and support costs to the OCX acquisition program office.

    “Regrettably, extensive system issues arose during the integrated testing of OCX with the broader GPS enterprise,” said Mission Delta 31 Commander Col. Stephen Hobbs. “Despite repeated collaborative approaches by the entire government and contractor team, the challenges of onboarding the system in an operationally relevant timeline proved insurmountable. We discovered problems across a broad range of capability areas that would put current GPS military and civilian capabilities at risk.”

    Because of past delays on the OCX program, the Space Force has made incremental improvements over the last 10 years to AEP. These successful upgrades provide confidence that further upgrades to GPS ground systems will continue to support the enterprise and deliver new capabilities.

    “Ultimately, we analyzed the work remaining on OCX and compared this with the current GPS control system capability,” Hobbs said. “The analysis revealed additional investment in OCX was no longer the best solution for protecting and advancing GPS capabilities. Instead, we will continue enhancing the current control system to operate the GPS satellite constellation.”

  • Raytheon, NOAA win award for unmanned hurricane tracker

    Raytheon, NOAA win award for unmanned hurricane tracker

    Raytheon Company and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration received Aviation Week magazine’s Laureate Award for using the Raytheon Coyote unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to provide near-real-time, potentially life-saving data during hurricanes.

    Joseph Cione, hurricane researcher at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and principal investigator of NOAA’s Coyote project, holds the UAV in front of NOAA’s P-3 aircraft at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida. (Photo: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) (PRNewsfoto/Raytheon Company)

    Developed for the military, Coyote is a small, expendable UAV that’s air- or ground-launched into environments too dangerous for manned aircraft. The system can fly for more than an hour and up to 50 miles from its host aircraft.

    Learn more about the Coyote in this February 2016 GPS World article.

    “Weather forecasters are able to better understand storm behavior and improve hurricane models based on the real-time information provided by our Coyotes,” said Thomas Bussing, Raytheon vice president of Advanced Missile Systems. “Coyote UAVs are collecting and delivering robust storm data that could ultimately save lives.”

    In 2017, NOAA researchers deployed six Coyote UAVs to track and model Hurricane Maria. Launched from a NOAA WP-3D Orion hurricane hunter aircraft, the Coyotes flew directly into the storm, giving researchers an unprecedented view of Maria.

    Traditional weather instruments are dropped from planes and capture only a snapshot of storm behavior, but Coyote’s winged design allowed it to linger and return to key areas of a hurricane to gather more data and transmit it near-real-time to researchers.

    “We think unmanned technologies that explore dangerous and difficult to observe regions of the storm may improve our physical understanding, provide enhanced situational awareness and might ultimately improve the accuracy of hurricane intensity forecasts in the future,” said Joseph Cione, a hurricane researcher at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and principal investigator of NOAA’s Coyote project. “The Coyotes we deployed in Hurricane Maria collected critical, continuous observations in the lower part of the hurricane, an area impossible to reach with manned aircraft.”

    The Coyote UAV was first deployed in 2014, when NOAA launched four of the systems into Hurricane Edouard, a Category 3 storm. Scientists on board the aircraft collected meteorological data in both the eye of the storm and the surrounding eye wall.