Army plans follow-up to SATCOM services pilot for FY25

WASHINGTON — The US Army is working on a follow-on contract vehicle for purchasing commercial satellite services before the end of fiscal 2025, following the success of a year-long pilot project wrapping up at the end of this month, service officials told Breaking Defense.

“The Army G6 is currently consolidating all commercial SATCOM requirements to find efficiencies in providing network services through various contract options and consolidated funding lines,” said Lt. Col. Mark Scott, product manager for Unified Network Capabilities and Integration (UNCI) in an Oct. 18 email.

“The Army acquisition community is planning to move from a pilot contract to a follow-on contract in fiscal year (FY) 2025 that will establish a Blanket Purchase Agreement with multiple vendors that provide services from all constellations to include Low, Medium and Geosynchronous Earth (LEO, MEO, and GEO) orbits,” he added.

Scott is assigned to the project manager Tactical Network, which led the Satellite Communications (SATCOM) as a Managed Service (SaaMS) pilot under the Army Program Executive Office for Command, Control, Communications and Network (PEO C3N). PEO C3N is the new name as of Oct. 9 for the service’s Program Executive Office for Command, Control and Communications – Tactical — a change that was designed to reflect the Army’s plans to develop a modernized unified network. 

The Army on Oct. 16 issued a request for information (RFI) to industry designed to assess the “state of the art” of commercial tech for two types of SATCOM services that would be bought under a new agreement, that in essence buy access to SATCOM in the same way that individuals subscribe to a mobile phone plan. Like the Army’s SaaMS pilot, the new contract vehicle would be managed through the US Space Force’s Commercial Space Office.

“The US Army is seeking a highly reliable and secure communication network for the Army with worldwide coverage. The communication network will ensure uninterrupted data transfer, voice communication for the warfighter. The offeror must meet at least a 6 Mbps download and a 2 Mbps upload. These are only the very minimum requirements, but the Army seeks higher and cost-effective data plans,” the RFI said.

“In addition, the US Army seeks multiple vendors to supply iDirect SATCOM terminals that will be used for the Sustainment Transport System (STS) Program. The [SaaMS] portion to STS will provide: multiband-capable SATCOM terminals, SATCOM terminal training, and maintenance of SATCOM terminals,” it added.

Scott said while the current timeline is subject to potential change, the Army hopes to issue a formal request for proposals in late FY25.

Army officials were pleased with the outcome of the SaaMS pilot, which involved two vendors, Intelsat and  DRS Global Solutions. DRS Global Solutions now has been folded into into SES Space and Defense, the American arm of Luxembourg-based SES S.A., which purchased the business from Italian defense firm Leonardo.

While noting that he was not directly involved in the effort, Col. Pete Atkinson, the Army’s principal space advisor, told the annual Association of the US Army conference on Oct. 15 “it was an absolute success.”

Scott explained that the pilot used “one and six-month service plans” that “included satellite terminals, bandwidth in all regions of the world, training packages, coordination of host nation agreements, cybersecurity, 24/7 helpdesk support, and maintenance services.”

Via individual task order under the Blanket Purchase Agreement contract managed by the Space Force, the Army was able to tailor packages to different “use cases,” including “short term deployments, support to Army exercises, replace non-mission capable systems, and to supplement bandwidth for units needing extra data transport,” he said.

Overall, the partnership between the Army and the selected pilot vendors enabled the successful fielding of over 60 systems within the pilot period of performance,” Scott added.

The pilot provided the Army with several “key takeaways” that will be factored into shaping the SATCOM as a service model, he said.

“One area of improvement included the need for a quicker transition of services if a unit is required to move locations, requiring vendor and Army coordination to execute the technical action,” Scott elaborated. “Additionally, feedback from pilot participants on vendor terminal solutions commented that they preferred smaller systems that are easily transportable. Short-notice deployments may require commercial air travel and ruggedized terminals with added power supplies in bulky tough boxes proved difficult for transport.”

Overall, however, the Army is convinced that there are benefits to be had from moving in that direction.

For example, using a service contract allows for “potential for rapid response to unit SATCOM requirements combined with the ability to scale quickly,” Scott said. “The biggest benefit discovered is the use of many of the latest technologies available in the commercial market.”