TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) has been awarded a contract by the US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) to provide managed satellite services to the US Marine Corps (USMC).
As part of the contract, which was issued under the joint DISA / US General Services Administration (GSA) Future Commercial Satellite Communications (SATCOM) Acquisition programme, TCS will supply managed satellite services, Ku satellite bandwidth, terrestrial support and 24-hour support services for the USMC’s tactical satellite communications network.
The company will provide commercial satellite services to various terminals to extend the marine corps enterprise network to deployed users under the contract.
TCS Government Solutions Group president, Michael Bristol, said that the company will provide further highly reliable communication technology to deployed forces.
The contract marks the first order the company has received under a potential $2.6bn Custom SATCOM Solutions (CS2) vehicle awarded by the Defense Information Systems Agency and the General Services Administration in August 2012 to eight companies.
A cost-efficient managed services solution has been designed by the company through a network of commercial satellite bandwidth pools, to provide marine corps with the flexibility to enhance bandwidth in one region and decrease bandwidth in another region.
The contract is valued at $12.8m for the base 12-month period starting from 1 August 2013 and includes four, one-year options, which, if exercised, would bring the total value of the contract to $58.3m.
In order to ensure mission continuity, TCS provides organisations requiring seamless and secure connectivity between fixed sites and remote operations, with a TotalCom deployable, highly secure communication solutions and complete end-to-end managed services for converged (IP-based) voice, video and data solutions.
Image: US military’s Deployable Ku-Band Earth Terminals (DKET). Photo: courtesy of US Army.
