The Air Force has withheld nearly $26 million from Lockheed Martin [LMT] since May 2011 over delays of the first Global Positioning System (GPS) III satellite due to issues with its navigational payload.
Air Force spokesman Maj. Eric Badger said in a recent email GPS III prime contractor Lockheed Martin earned 62 percent of the total available award fee pool of nearly $68 million between May 2011 and May 2014. For the most recent award fee period between May 2013 and May 2014 for space vehicles one and two, Badger said, Lockheed Martin did not receive any funds from an available $17 million.
The withheld fee is foregone, Badger said, and cannot be recouped.
The Air Force remains frustrated Lockheed Martin and navigation payload-provider Exelis [XLS] have not been able to fix their navigation payload issues and deliver a satellite. Though new Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) chief Gen. John Hyten recently credited Lockheed Martin for its progress, he refused to say the program is doing well.
“You can’t say the program is doing well when you haven’t launched a satellite and you’re two years behind,” Hyten told reporters Sept. 17 at the 2014 Air and Space Convention in National Harbor, Md.
Hyten said Exelis delivered the first navigation payload to Lockheed Martin the weekend of Sept. 12 and the payload is now going through installation on the first GPS III spacecraft. Hyten said the navigation payload still has to go through integration, thermal vacuum testing and the entire test process.
Hyten said Exelis leadership is “committed” to navigation payloads for the second, third and fourth GPS III satellites being delivered “on the heels” of the first satellite.
“If that’s the case, then in the not too distant future, GPS III will be back in good shape,” Hyten said.
Lockheed Martin spokesman Chip Eschenfelder said the company does not discuss programmatic incentive nor award fee specifics. As for the payload, Eschenfelder said Lockheed Martin and Exelis are committed to getting this first navigation payload right, ensuring that all developmental risks are retired and that the payload is fully flightworthy before its final delivery.
Lockheed Martin Vice President and General Manager of Military Space Mark Valerio told Defense Daily in March the two companies had been dealing with radio frequency (RF) interference, or “crosstalk,” within the mission data unit (MDU) of the navigation payload for about eight months. Valerio called the MDU the “heart” of a GPS III satellite’s timekeeping system.
Former AFSPC chief Gen. William Shelton said earlier this year the service had approached other contractors in case Lockheed Martin and Exelis could solve the navigation payload issues. A Boeing [BA] executive acknowledged earlier this year the company was approached as the Boeing has created navigation payloads in the past and created the MDU for the GPS IIF series, of which it is also prime contractor (Defense Daily, March 12).
GPS III is the Air Force’s next generation position, navigation and timing (PNT) satellite constellation.