Army readying satcom contract

The Army plans to release the solicitation soon for the five-year, $5 billion World-Wide Satellite Systems (WWSS) contract.

The contract will provide a vehicle for the military and government agencies to buy commercial terminals and services for satellite communications. The Army will award up to six indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity deals in late spring 2006, with the intent for two for small businesses, according to an Army statement.

“Each prime contractor will be required to provide complete turnkey solutions, including hardware, software, support services and data,” said Kevin Carroll, program executive officer in the Army’s Program Executive Office for Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS). The service’s project manager for defense communications and Army transmission systems, which falls under PEO-EIS, and the project manager for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, will administer the contract.

The six commercial satellite terminals offered on the contract are very small-aperture terminals (VSATs) for combat service support, flyaway VSATs, deployable satellite Earth terminals, fixed-station terminals, military-certified terminals and prime mover/trailer-mounted terminals. They might be required to operate with military or commercial satellites in the C-, Ku-, X- and Ka-bands.