Written by / Compiled by KMI Media Group staff
MIT 2009 Volume: 13 Issue: 11 (December)
Globecomm Systems has introduced an operational commercial X-band service offering to U.S. military and coalition forces operating in Southwest Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Globecomm’s end-to-end X-band offering combines licensed teleport assets, a global fiber network, commercial X-band space segment, a redundant iDirect IP services platform, and a wide range of satellite terminal equipment options. This service provisioning will support the demand for increased bandwidth requirements in an IP-centric fashion. This commercial X-band service offering makes use of high-power satellites that can support the deployment of small aperture antennas, including man-portable units, in regions of the world that have very high usage demands and are in critical need of additional bandwidth options. Along with its global service offering, Globecomm provides a variety of X-band satellite terminal hardware, ranging from the new TomCat ManPack to 0.77m and 1.2m Auto-Explorer selfaligning terminals up to 3.0m single-carrier and 4.0m multi-carrier, fixed hub earth stations.
Dwight R. Hunsicker:
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Test Backs Mobile User Objective System Capabilities
A team led by General Dynamics C4 Systems has successfully completed the second of three incremental ground segment tests for the Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), the military’s next-generation narrowband satellite communications system. The company will provide the user entry and integrated ground segments to Lockheed Martin, prime contractor for the MUOS program. MUOS will provide cell phone-like services to ground-based warfighters, enabling users to communicate directly with each other and their commanders virtually anywhere in the world. The recent Ground System Build 2 Factory Acceptance Test milestone demonstrated critical voice and data communications as well as interoperability between the MUOS Ground System and a MUOS satellite simulator. The testing demonstrated the system’s ability to provide voice and data communication services, including netted services that will allow several warfighters to communicate as a group. Once completed, MUOS will permit the transfer of e-mail, binary files, images and streaming video. It will also provide a geolocation capability to determine the geographic location of sources that could interfere with MUOS communications.
Air Force to Deploy Second Phase of Host Based Security System
The Air Force Combat Information Transport System Program Management Office at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., has awarded Northrop Grumman a $17.6 million task order to integrate Phase II of the Host Based Security System (HBSS) Phase II, also known as HBSS 3.0, is an extensive security solution upgrade to the SIPRNet. Northrop Grumman will deploy HBSS 3.0 to approximately 263 active duty Air Force bases and Air National Guard sites around the world. HBSS Phase II comes on the heels of a successful effort led by the company to integrate Phase I of the HBSS. Northrop Grumman and partner McAfee deployed Phase I throughout the Air Force and Air National Guard to protect data over NIPRNet. Under Phase II, Northrop Grumman will plan, design, integrate, test, configure, train, document and deploy HBSS 3.0 to better protect data over the SIPRNet. The Department of Defense has mandated HBSS for eventual installation on all unclassified and classified networks. HBSS 3.0 provides system administrators significant improvements in situational awareness and drastically reduces or eliminates the effectiveness of cyber-attacks. Key teammates on this program include McAfee, CDWG and Innove.
Charles Paone:
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Inmarsat Acquires Provider of Secure IP Managed Solutions
In a significant development in the military market for satellite services and network, Inmarsat has acquired Segovia, a provider of secure IP managed solutions and services to the Army and other U.S. military services and government agencies. Segovia’s expertise in designing, deploying and operating mixed satellite and terrestrial networks in the military’s challenging deployment and training environments, coupled with its secure, dedicated IP network infrastructure, have given it an important role in Department of Defense transformation and modernization initiatives. The trend within DoD toward end-to-end solution acquisition versus piecemeal component acquisition is expected to drive demand for Segovia’s managed solutions and services in the coming years. Inmarsat will make an initial payment of $110 million, and may pay additional amounts depending on future performance over the next three years. Inmarsat expects to finance the transaction from current available liquidity. For 2008, Segovia reported total revenue of $67 million and net income of $18 million. After the expected closing of the transaction early next year, current Segovia executive management will operate Segovia as a separate business reporting to Jim Parm, president and chief executive officer of Stratos, Inmarsat’s direct distribution business.
Rebecca M. Cowen-Hirsch:
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Army Engineering Command Acquires IA Services
STG has been awarded a $39 million, two-year contract to deliver information assurance services to the Army Information Systems Engineering Command (USAISEC), Information Assurance Systems Engineering Directorate (IASED). Under the terms of this procurement, STG will provide IA support services for several IASED customers, including program executive offices, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security and other Department of Defense or federal agencies. USAISEC provides systems engineering, installation, integration, implementation and evaluation support for communications and information technology systems worldwide. To support this task, STG will perform IA engineering, discovery and certification visits from its Sierra Vista, Ariz., facility, conducting research, engineering and network testing of servers and platforms to determine security engineering solutions.
Dave Lilie:
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Multiband Land Mobile Radio Certified for Project 25 Compliance
The Liberty multiband land mobile radio (LMR) from Thales Communications has successfully completed trunking interoperability testing, meeting the requirements of the Department of Homeland Security Project 25 (P25) compliance assessment program. The Liberty radio was certified by the Tait Radio Communications/EADS Secure Networks laboratory, one of only four land mobile radio manufacturers named by the federal government as having a recognized P25 CAP laboratory. The purpose of the program is to provide emergency response agencies with evidence that the communications equipment they are purchasing meets P25 standards for performance, conformance and interoperability and offers demonstrated evidence of a product’s compliance with specific requirements. Thales’s Liberty radio, approved earlier this year by the Federal Communications Commission, is the first multiband, software-defined LMR designed specifically for government agencies and first responders to meet these challenges. The Liberty LMR operates in all modes, with full encryption, and enables multiagency communications in all the public safety frequency bands (136-174 MHz, 380-520 MHz, 700 MHz, and 800 MHz). The Liberty radio works on current analog systems as well as P25 trunking systems, regardless of frequency range.
Handheld Satellite Communications Devices Ordered for Combat Region
ITT has received a contract from the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division to supply 1,450 Iridium-based handheld tactical satellite communication devices for use by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Under the contract, valued at $9.7 million, ITT will manufacture and deliver the Distributed Tactical Communications Systems-Radio Only (DTCS-RO) transceivers by March 2010. The DTCS-RO handheld push-totalk radios use Iridium Communications’ satellite network to provide over-the-horizon, beyond-lineof- sight tactical networks for warfighters on the move. In June, NSWC awarded Iridium a five-year development contract valued at up to $21.7 million for Phase Two of the DTCS program, also known as “Netted Iridium.” In Phase One, launched in 2006, Iridium worked with the Department of Defense and industry partners under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to demonstrate the feasibility of using Iridium’s satellite network to support a multicast architecture for tactical voice and data communications. DoD tested proof-of-concept units, and has successfully deployed early prototypes and low-rate production devices in combat operations. Under Phase Two, Iridium is making in-orbit upgrades to the satellites and ground infrastructure to expand the footprint of DTCS nets from 100 to 250 miles, and to permit more than 2,000 nets to be activated simultaneously on the satellite network.
DISA Seeks Integrated Network Situational Awareness
A team led by Raytheon has been awarded a contract to help the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) develop integrated network operations situational awareness (NetOps SA) across Department of Defense classified and unclassified cybernetworks. Under the $28 million award, Raytheon and its teammates will provide a cybersecurity solution that will, among other things, enable DoD to quickly detect network intrusions and assess the overall health of its network. NetOps SA is an emerging field that provides integrated information assurance, enterprise management and content management across the Global Information Grid networks. One of the tools the Raytheon team will use to provide NetOps SA is a Computer Network Defense User Defined Operational Picture, an integration framework developed by General Dynamics, a Raytheon team member. In addition to General Dynamics, the Raytheon team members are SAIC, Eye Street Software and BCMC.
J. Fields:
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