The Pentagon has terminated the OCX program, a 16-year, multibillion-dollar effort to modernize the military's GPS command and control system. Michael Duffey, the Pentagon's defense acquisition executive, officially canceled the Global Positioning System Next-Generation Operational Control System on April 17, citing problems that "proved insurmountable" during testing.

Originally awarded to Raytheon in 2010 with a $3.7 billion budget and 2016 completion target, the program's costs ballooned to nearly $8 billion. The system was designed to handle new signals from GPS III satellites, which began launching in 2018, but extensive testing revealed critical failures that would have jeopardized both military and civilian GPS capabilities.

The cancellation marks one of the military's most expensive technology failures. Despite delivering the system in 2025, Raytheon couldn't resolve the integration issues that plagued the program throughout its troubled history. The Space Force will now need to develop alternative solutions to modernize its GPS infrastructure, though officials haven't announced specific plans for moving forward.