The U.S Airforce’ 50th Space Wing would now benefit from the services of Boeing’s GPS Operational Control Segment.
The OCS serves to maintain the GPS system within a particular accuracy so that precise and safe navigation is provided for military, commercial and humanitarian purposes. Craig Cooning, the Vice President of Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems, noted that this was the first time the air force chose to deploy a Boeing-designed OCS system. He added that OCS has been supporting the GPS system since 2007 and this combined system now helps the air force in vital operations.
The Boeing team joined hands with Lockheed Martin, a.i. solutions and Braxton technologies led a joint effort in assisting the air force in conducting a series of operational tests and evaluations, which started in 2007. During this time, the transition to GPS system from satellite operations was being conducted. The OCS serves to enhance the functionality of the GPS system through the open and distributed hardware and software architectures. The designing of the OCS is flexible and can modify itself to technological advancements easily. OCS provides improvement in operator efficiency and precise timing, navigation and positioning as well. The overall military operations using the GPS are enhanced due to less workload on the operator.
Boeing has been giving continuous support for the ground operations of the GPS fleet for over 30 years now. Boeing has many notable accomplishments in this field, such as addition of GPS security feature to protect against fake signals sent from enemy camps, providing necessary support to the air force in deploying main ground control segments and Anomaly Resolution and Disposal Operations. Boeing is currently engaged in a contract to build 12 GPS Block IIF satellites. Boeing has already established its expertise with GPS IIF satellites by successfully building 40 of them.
Source: http://www.airforce.com/