US Defense Department Plans 15-year Dedicated Satellite Lease

The Pentagon spends $500 million a year on commercial satellite communications to support operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Defense Information Systems Agency wants to cut those costs dramatically with a $440 million, 15-year lease of a single commercial satellite.

DISA expects such a deal could meet 78 percent of U.S. Central Command’s requirements. CENTCOM forces also could tap into military satellite services from two low-bandwidth Defense Satellite Communications System satellites and a single high-capacity Wideband Global Satcom satellite in orbit over the Indian Ocean. But these satellites hardly keep up with growing demand, and commercial operators provide 80 percent of the CENTCOM satellite service today.

Bruce Bennett, DISA’s director for satellite communications, said end users in Afghanistan demand and expect the same kind of broadband service available in the United States, “and the only way to do that is by satellite.” Short-term leases of commercial capacity is costly, Bennett said, which is why DISA wants to explore a long-term lease option with commercial satellite operators.

Last month, DISA asked industry for its input on this lease deal — Assured SATCOM Services in Single Theater. Industry responses to the request for information are due April 15. DISA asked satellite operators if they could provide broadband service during a 15-year period for $440 million. The 2012 DISA budget request allocates $86.7 million for the project in 2011 and $415 million in 2012.

In the request for information, DISA said it wants to lease a single satellite to provide service in the commercial Ku-band as well as the Ka-band, which military Wideband Global Satcom satellites use.

DISA plans to use commercial Ku-band service to support remotely piloted aircraft operations and the Ka-band service for ground forces. The total throughput from the leased commercial satellite is pegged at 6.37 gigabits per second, or about the same capacity as the military Wideband Global Satcom satellite serving CENTCOM today.

Bennett said that while a Ku/Ka-band satellite that could meet DISA’s requirements “does not exist today,” his discussions with satellite operators indicated that one was under construction.

Britt Lewis, vice president of marketing and business strategy for Intelsat General Corp., said, “It is possible to build a satellite between now and December 2014 to fully meet the ASSIST requirements as long as the bidder has access to the relevant Ku-band spectrum,” to support operations for remotely piloted aircraft.

Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, president of Inmarsat Government Services Inc., said it would be “impossible” for DISA to acquire a combined Ku/Ka-band satellite to serve CENTCOM by December 2014 as the agency plans. Cowen-Hirsch said commercial operators do not have either the satellites or the orbital slots to meet this requirement. She suggested DISA drop the Ku-band requirement and instead focus on acquisition of a Ka-band only satellite. Inmarsat will have such a satellite that can meet DISA’s needs in 2013, she said.

DISA, in response to questions from satellite operators, said that while it wants to acquire Ka-band capacity on one satellite and prefers to obtain Ku-band service over the same satellite, “there is more flexibility in how the Ku capacity is provided.”

The 2012 DISA budget for the CENTCOM commercial satellite service includes $362.9 million for the long-term satellite lease and another $53.1 million to upgrade terminals, replacing the Ku-band terminals remotely piloted aircraft use with Ka-band terminals. Cowen-Hirsch suggested DISA put more of this budget into terminal replacement, which would eliminate the need for Ku-band service.

Lewis said UAS currently account for 20 percent of the CENTCOM satellite capacity, with those requirements expected to grow. “Our sense is that [unmanned aircraft systems] demand will continue to escalate as long as the government continues its high operations tempo around the world,” Lewis said.

Cowen-Hirsch said the DISA ASSIST programme represents an intriguing and innovative opportunity for a public-private partnership that will help drive down satellite lease costs for Defense while providing satellite operators with a long-term customer.

DISA, in its budget request, said the long-term lease will provide it with 78 percent of the CENTCOM satellite capacity through an “efficient, economic and dedicated source.”

Source: Next Gov

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