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In the real world, predicting the military’s requirements is not the work of soothsayers. Instead, it requires traditional and nontraditional defense contractors alike to keep their eyes wide open and their ears to the ground. If they plan to sell a solution to one or all of the armed services in the coming years, they had better be paying close attention today to technical gaps as well as wish lists. And although companies going after military and government business are similar in many ways, their approaches to garner that next big contract are often very different.

The General Services Administration and the Defense Information Systems Agency have made the first contract awards under their combined commercial satellite communications program, and more are expected soon. Part of an effort that began approximately two years ago, the deals mark a major shift in the way federal government organizations procure these space-based services. And though industry has its doubts about this new arrangement, the agencies in charge of the program believe the plan will benefit users and providers alike.

Export controls of military-related materials long have been a bone of contention between government and industry, but 2010 ushered in an array of changes, with adjustments to current laws and talk of broader reform. Leaders of private-sector organizations have pushed hard for legal decision makers to simplify the sale of products to foreign entities so domestic companies can keep pace with overseas competitors. And though these industry personnel might sometimes label the governing agencies as obstacles, administrators of the law also want restructuring efforts to move forward.

NASA recently awarded a 10-year, $2.5 billion contract to HP Enterprise Services of Herndon, Virginia, for Agency Consolidated End-user Services (ACES).

BAE Systems Controls Incorporated, Johnson City, New York, is being awarded a $14 million contract for the procurement of Interim Defensive Weapons System mission kits for the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft.

Raydon Corporation, Daytona Beach, Florida, was recently awarded a more than $15 million contract to provide 21 virtual combat operations trainers upgrade

NIITEK Incorporated, Dulles, Virginia, recently received a $38 million contract to provide 64 Husky mounted detection systems to be deployed to Afghanista

General Dynamics Information Technology Incorporated, was recently awarded a nearly $39 million contract for the operation and relocation of the U.S.

The Boeing Company, St.

AeroVironment Incorporated recently announced that it received an order valued at about $46 million under an existing contract with the U.S.