US Customs and Border Protection issued a draft RFP for the purpose of acquiring a Ku Band Beyond Line of Sight Digital Datalink (BLOSDD) System.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) currently operates a fleet of manned and unmanned aircraft, including manned P-3 and DHC-8 patrol aircraft and the Predator B Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). Each of these platforms has an electro-optical imaging sensor, but only the Predator B UAS has the capability to transmit the sensor video to the CBP ground facilities for exploitation.
The purpose of the Ku Band BLOSDD System effort is to design, develop, install, and test software and a hardware system that will provide a Ku Bandwidth, satellite-based, datalink capability for P-3 Long Range Tracker (LRTs), P-3 Airborne Early Warning (AEW), and DHC-8 (200 and 300 series) aircraft as well as the necessary ground-based operation centers. The Ku Band BLOSDD System will assist CBP mission operators to rapidly and efficiently deliver and receive point-to-point and general broadcast data sets, thereby enabling all operators in the field and decision makers in operations centers to have “near real-time” access to audio-visual information required to effectively perform the mission of protecting the homeland.
Source: FedBizOpps