SATCOM

Technological leaps in ground station capabilities, such as interference cancellation, band diversity and phased array antennas, will allow the U.S. Army to use new Internet of Things satellite constellations to boost combat communications. New technologies offer lower latency, higher throughput and greater network resilience while being easier for soldiers to use.

Recent Army experiments, including the Network Modernization Experiment (NetModX) and Project Convergence, have included a range of technologies for enhancing and protecting satellite communications (SATCOM). The technologies will support Army modernization goals, including a more resilient network, long-range precision fires and air and missile defense.

GATR Technologies, Huntsville, Alabama, a subsidiary of Cubic Corp., was awarded a $172,000,000 maximum ceiling, single-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quality, firm-fixed-price contract (H92401-20-D-0003) with five one-year ordering periods for the procurement of 1.2 meter and 2.4 meter Ground Antenna Transmit and Receive (GATR) inflatable satellite communications terminals and ancillary equipment in support of U.S.

The Space Force has announced that the planned satellite hacking challenge known as Space Security Challenge 2020: Hack-A-Sat would proceed as planned, but in a virtual format due to the pandemic. The Department of the Air Force and the Defense Digital Service's (DDS's) event includes an online qualification event May 22-24, followed by a final August 7-9. During the final, participants will attempt to reverse-engineer representative ground-based and on-orbit satellite system components to overcome planted “flags” or software code.

Concerns are growing about warfighters’ ability to communicate mission-critical information beyond line-of-sight in conflicts with peer and near-peer adversaries. Just in time, a new generation of highly capable high frequency radios is emerging as a viable solution when satellite communications are denied or unavailable. Fourth-generation wideband high frequency radios can satisfy military needs with the century-old wireless technology that is experiencing a resurgence of interest from warfighters worldwide.

As cyber threats continue to grow, so does the reality that digital satellite communications can be degraded and denied either through digital or electromagnetic means. If these capabilities are compromised, however, high frequency radio provides a means to continue communicating even beyond the line of sight by leveraging the ionosphere to refract radio signals back to earth.

The International Communication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector designates the high frequency (HF) range as between 3 megahertz and 30 megahertz. While this method of communication was utilized extensively up through the 1990s, it began to lose traction in the military when the availability of satellite communications (SATCOM) increased.

The Army awarded Atlanta-based Envistacom a $47.8 million, three-year contract in support of the service's Deployable Ku-Band Earth Terminal (DKET) program. The company will assist the Army’s Product Manager Satellite Communications (PdM SATCOM). The tasking comes as part of the Deployable Adaptive Global Responder Support indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract that has a ceiling of $480 million over five years. The company will provide installation, training, relocation, integration, and upgrades for new, legacy and existing DKETs, DKET LT - the so-called Lite version - and mobile DKET, known as MKET. PdM SATCOM is responsible for the Army's tactical multi-channel satellite ground and commercial terminal programs.

IAP Worldwide Services Inc., Cape Canaveral, Florida, was awarded a $16,289,540 hybrid (cost-no-fee, firm-fixed-price and time-and-materials) contract for satellite communication support. Bids were solicited via the internet with two received. Work will be performed in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, with an estimated completion date of January 21, 2025. Fiscal year 2019 operations and maintenance Army funds in the amount of $16,289,540 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W52P1J-19-C-0034).

The Boeing Co., Seattle, Washington, is awarded $93,632,264 for cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order N0001919F2963 against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-16-G-0001). The order provides for the manufacture, test, installation, integration, and qualification of up to eight Wideband Satellite Communication kits in the P-8A Poseidon aircraft for the Navy. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington (83 percent); Patuxent River, Maryland (15 percent); and St. Louis, Missouri (2 percent), and is expected to be completed in April 2024.

The impact of world events on military operators in the field have made missions exponentially more demanding, and in tandem, the very simple concept of connectivity has transformed into a complex and challenging task. As new events occur around the globe, military and government users in remote and often hostile environments require instant and reliable connectivity empowered by robust intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensor data. Resilient and secure satellite communications capabilities warfighters rely on also must be accessible at a moment’s notice.

The U.S. Navy announced today that U.S. Strategic Command has approved the service’s next-generation narrowband satellite communication system for expanded operational use. The authorization paves the way for Navy and Marine Corps “early-adopter” commands to use the system on deployment as early as this fall, primarily in the Pacific theater, according to the written announcement. The Navy's on-orbit, five-satellite constellation—the Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS—began providing legacy satellite communications shortly after the system’s first satellite launch in 2012.

More than 2,000 miles away from the path of devastation cut by hurricanes Irma and Maria, network engineers at the Rock Island Arsenal Integrated Network Operations Center (INOC) work around-the-clock to support the relief efforts of American aid workers in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Operated by the Army’s product lead for Defense-Wide Transmission Systems, the INOC establishes and supports satellite (SATCOM) communications links for a wide range of missions.

Mnemonics Incorporated of Melbourne, Florida, is being awarded a $10,043,841 cost-plus-fixed fee completion contract for the final phase of research and development services for Satellite, Avionics and Communications Systems. The total cumulative face value of this contract including all options, is $49,615 252. Work will be performed at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, District of Columbia, and work is expected to be completed October 31, 2018. If all options are exercised, work will continue through November 30, 2022.  Fiscal 2018 Navy working capital funds in the amount of $150,000 will be obligated at the time of award. No funds will expire at end of current fiscal year.  This contract was procured on the basis other than f

During the final days of November, managers for the Joint Telemedicine Network (JTMN) powered down the central teleport facility in Landstuhl, Germany, officially closing the network that had provided a dedicated worldwide satellite communication (SATCOM) network to U.S. Army medical personnel treating wounded soldiers at field hospitals and forward operating bases in combat zones.

Advances in a plethora of military communication and situational awareness platforms have created unintended repercussions for the U.S. Navy, from the “forest of antennas” that can consume a ship’s deck to the debilitating effects of radio interference that clog airwaves and impede critical links to vessels, aircraft, drones and even satellites. Navy engineers are toiling on a handful of projects to ensure effective and secure communication links, which are so fundamental to military operations. 

As the U.S. Army brings even more advanced information technologies into the force, the service also strives to simplify training and use of these highly capable tools. Making increasingly complex systems simpler to operate now is a core function of the office tasked with designing, fielding and maintaining command, control and communications in the warfighting realm.

In its enduring space race to narrow the materializing gap between the United States and peer competitors, the Air Force’s fiscal year 2017 budget emphasizes sustaining mission capabilities and improving space resilience by investing in command and control programs, situational awareness technologies, expendable launch systems and satellite communications.

The Defense Department has reached a turning point in satellite communications (SATCOM) acquisition and deployment. On one hand, it is transitioning SATCOM from narrowband to wideband to keep up with ever-accumulating voice, video and data consumption. On the other, the budget forecast for the foreseeable future does not cover the replacement or addition of military satellite communications (MILSATCOM) systems, except for those within existing programs of record.

L-3 Communications announced today that it has been awarded an $81.8 million contract from Raytheon Australia to supply the Australian Defence Force (ADF) with 236 Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs), additional support equipment and training as part of Joint Project 2008 Phase 5B1. This program will further enable the ADF to utilize the Wideband Global Satellite Communications system, significantly increasing its satellite communications capabilities. Two L-3 business units, Global Communications Solutions (GCS) and Linkabit, will perform on this contract, with hardware deliveries expected to be completed this year.

Harris Corporation, Palm Bay, Florida, was awarded a $9,946,851 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for research of distributed embedded satellite communications on-the-move terminals. Work will be performed in Palm Bay, Florida (50 percent); Boulder, Colorado (25.20 percent); Torrance, California (23.40 percent); and Aberdeen, Maryland (1.40 percent), with an estimated completion date of March 30, 2015. Bids were solicited via the Internet, with two received. Fiscal 2014 other procurement (Army) funds in the amount of $6,700,000, and fiscal 2014 research, development, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $912,021, are being obligated at the time of the award.

 
General Dynamics, SATCOM Technologies Inc., Duluth, Ga., is being awarded a $15,093,132 fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract to produce and deliver up to 80 each Ku-Band terminals, Ka-Band conversion kits and X-Band conversion kits for the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Special Communications Requirements Division (SCRD). The SCRD has been tasked by the National Guard Bureau (NGB) to install, test and evaluate the satellite communications on the move technologies in support of the NGB's advanced liaison response vehicle. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, N.J., is the contracting activity (N68335-13-D-0032).

 
Linquest Corp., Los Angeles, Calif., is being awarded a $7,002,010 firm-fixed-price contract modification contract for military satellite communication system engineering and integration services. The contracting activity is Space and Missile Center, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.  

Globecomm Systems Incorporated, Hauppauge, New York; DRS Technical Services Incorporated, Herndon, Virginia; and L- 3/3Di Technologies Limited Liability Corporation, Hanover, Maryland, are each being awarded an indefinite- delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price, multiple award contract, with a cumulative value of $17,001,463 to provide commercial-off-the-shelf satellite network and communications equipment and other services. Each contractor will be awarded $8,333 at the time of award. These contracts include options, which, if exercised, could bring the combined cumulative value of these multiple award contracts to an estimated $85,007,313.

Harris Corporation, Government Communications Systems Division, Palm Bay, Florida, was awarded a $47,050,513 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the sustainment and support services for the AN/GSC-52 modernization program's family of satellite communications earth terminals and associated equipment. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Alexandria, Virginia, is the contracting activity.

Science Applications International Corporation, San Diego, California, is being awarded a $6,961,768 firm-fixed-price contract for advisory and assistance services for the Weather Sustainment Division. Space-based infrared systems and military satellite communications must sustain effective and responsive consolidated logistics management support for mission-critical national defense weapons ground/command and control systems. U.S. Air Force Space Command, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, is the contracting activity.