As a turbulent presidential election continues to command the nation's airwaves and attention, Congress has been working diligently on the defense authorization and funding bills for fiscal year 2017.
The House passed its versions with relatively modest changes to the budget proposed by the Pentagon, but the Senate-passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the current Senate appropriations bill call for dozens of sweeping reforms, and some of those reforms have significant implications for national security.
Of particular concern is the future of the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System, or GPS OCX. The Senate version of the NDAA withholds funding for OCX pending actions required under the Nunn-McCurdy Act. The Senate defense appropriations bill would eliminate funding ($393 million) for GPS OCX altogether. As the former Director of Operations for U.S Cyber Command and former Director of Operations for the Air Force, I know that we need to address critical shortfalls with our current GPS architecture and OCX does exactly that. It is important to complete the program review under Nunn-McCurdy and eventually restore the program funding.
GPS OCX upgrades critical components of the infrastructure that monitor and control the GPS satellite constellation, in the U.S. and around the world. These upgrades will lead to improvements in three critical mission areas: increased position accuracy and timing, better coverage in hard-to-reach areas such as urban settings and mountainous terrain, and, very importantly, additional critical defenses against cyberattacks.
A June 7 statement from the Office of Management and Budget said, "OCX will provide a cyber-hardened ground control network to operate the current and future GPS satellites."
Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noted the cost overruns suffered by the OCX program, but said DoD needs to utilize new features of the GPS III satellites, including capabilities that could help warfighters counter GPS jamming by North Korea, Russia and others. "This is an important capability, they can't just do without it," said Harrison.
Earlier this year, Gen. John Hyten, commander of Air Force Space Command, told the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces that "any program that is $1 billion over budget and five years late meets the definition of disaster." Regardless, he told lawmakers that the best way forward is to monitor the program closely and deliver capability in a time-certain manner to ensure GPS "is available for future years and in a cyber secure environment."
There is no denying the cost overruns and schedule delays. We are trying to solve a very tough set of problems, and the technical challenges are immense. The Air Force, OSD and the system engineers have been working hard to deliver GPS OCX. In March of this year The system passed the first formal qualification test milestone in March, and in June the system passed its second test milestone. These are critical steps to delivering program capability in the next two years.
Accurate, reliable, resilient GPS is not only an essential military requirement, but it is also a foundation on which we rely for business and personal activities that support our economy and our way of life. We cannot afford for GPS to be vulnerable to cyberattack or hostile jamming, or for it to be unavailable to a soldier or a first-responder when they need it most. There is no quick fix or feasible alternative solution. Funding GPS OCX is the right approach for our nation.
Maj. Gen. Brett T. Williams (ret.) is the president, operations, training and security at IronNet Cybersecurity Inc. He is the former Director of Operations U.S. Cyber Command.
