Raytheon joins industry partners in congratulating the United States Air Force (USAF) for the International Astronautical Federation's 60th Anniversary Award, presented at IAF ceremonies Oct. 4 in Cape Town, South Africa.

IAF honored the USAF GPS program with this once-in-a-lifetime achievement for the benefit GPS has had on humanity throughout the history of the space age.

Raytheon, which is responsible for providing command and control systems for the GPS constellation, applauds the USAF GPS program for its critical contribution to military, civil and commercial users in the United States and worldwide.

"Without GPS the world would be a much different place. The positive and cross-cutting impact of GPS and its applications on modern life is indisputable," said Lynn Dugle, president of Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems, who attended the IAF event.

"GPS is a worldwide system that has generated billions of dollars of economic activity and growth, enabling global financial transactions, telecommunications and internet switching, and generating entirely new location-based service industries. Raytheon is proud to be a part of the GPS Enterprise Modernization team and its mission to maintain GPS as a vital national resource."

The GPS Enterprise Modernization program aims to evolve GPS services by improving the space, ground and user segments to support military, civil and commercial users around the world.

The Raytheon-built GPS Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX) will provide users with more secure, actionable and predictive information to enhance situational awareness, resulting in better, faster near real-time decision-making and response.