The US Military's Next-Gen GPS Program Is Still A Failure Nearly $8B Later

What could you do with ten years and 8 billion bucks? If you said "build a functional GPS control system for the US military," you'd be incorrect. The Pentagon's multi-year effort to establish a next-generation GPS program remains a non-starter, even after sinking billions upon billions into it. It's so far from the finish line, it's looking like the government could end up just cutting its losses and abandoning it altogether.

Originally due in 2016 (and at a price tag of $3.7 billion), the GPS Next-Generation Operational Control System, also known as OCX, still isn't functional. That didn't stop it from being formally delivered to the US Space Force in mid-2025, though. Nine months after that handover, OCX is still littered with unresolved technical issues system-wide. Meanwhile, the military is still managing its global navigation network with the aging infrastructure it wanted to get away from over a decade ago.

If OCX were up and running as intended, it'd control more than 30 GPS satellites as well as newer GPS III spacecraft. These craft are equipped with advanced anti-jamming and encrypted "M-code" signals used in modern warfare. But persistent software defects, rampant cybersecurity challenges, and a litany of system integration failures have prevented it from even becoming operational in the first place.

OCX was originally priced at $886 million when it was first contracted in 2010. The mind reels trying to comprehend how a project could get so far off course. Defense officials' excuse to Congress is that testing with real satellites and equipment uncovered more issues than expected. Many of these remain unresolved, and the mounting setbacks are verging on insurmountable. Rather than trying to fix them all, senior leaders are now apparently considering upgrading the decades-old legacy control system and canceling OCX entirely.

It's not an overstatement for some analysts to call it one of the most significant software failures in U.S. military history. A review from the country's own Government Accountability Office (GAO) would agree. The GAO determined the project has suffered from poor acquisition decisions, a failure to spot development problems, and a persistently high defect rate in the software itself. The Pentagon explored potential cancellation as far back as 2016, yet the program has continued to waste time and money for an entire decade since.

The government blames the contractors, including Tomahawk missile manufacturer RTX. Unsurprisingly, the contractors point the finger right back at the government. Meanwhile, OCX remains unfinished with no resolution in sight.