Napoleon Bonaparte said, “The secret of war lies in the communications,” and while it was true during his time, the veracity of that statement is infinitely more important today because of the reliance of communications technology in today’s military. The Armed Forces of developed countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have implemented a wide range of information and communications technologies (ICT) that keeps track of each soldier, vehicle and other equipment at all times.
This requires a communication infrastructure deployable anywhere with the ability to provide a reliable and secure platform so everyone in the theater of war can communicate effectively. TeleCommunication Systems (TCS), provider of highly reliable and secure mobile communication technology, announced its contract to provide Ku satellite bandwidth, terrestrial support and 24-hour support services for the U.S. Marine Corps' Tactical Satellite Communications Network has been extended for an additional year for $13.7 million.
Under the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) CS2 IDIQ, the agency had the option of exercising the continuation of the contract from August 1, 2014 through July 31, 2015. The contract was issued under the joint DISA/GSA Future Commercial Satcom Acquisition program, and is being managed by the U.S. General Services Administration and DISA through the $2.6 billion Custom SATCOM Solutions (CS2) contract vehicle.
TCS' satellite communications components provide:
- Transportable 2.4m X/Ka Antenna System built to provide maximum operational flexibility to the tactical user
- A field-proven, integrated antenna/ positioner/feed/electronics hardware with operational status achieved in less than 15 minutes
- Simultaneous dual-band X/Ka in a single feed
- Precision 2.4m composite reflector
- Band independent selectable RHCP or LHCP TX
- Dual RH/LH RX channels available in both bands
- Integrates field-proven Ka-band HPA/BUCand redundant X-band HPA products
- Excellent gain and noise temperature performance and more.
The solution TCS provides is deployable on the battlefield, at sea, in the air, or for individuals that want to telecommute from home. Its technology is used in wireless applications for navigation, hyper-local search, asset tracking, social applications and telematics. The company has a 27-year track record in providing communication technology solutions under conditions that demand the highest level of reliability, availability and security with proven and reliable delivery. Government agencies use TCS' cybersecurity expertise, professional services, and highly secure deployable satellite solutions for mission-critical communications.
“With TCS' extensive past performance in VSAT, baseband, field support and managed services, our customer service and delivery continue to meet our customer's expectations. TCS has adapted to our customer requirements by building a flexible managed services network that provides on-demand surge and regional pooling of bandwidth. As we move into the second year of this global Ku bandwidth contract, we will continue to provide the Marine Corps with a communications network anywhere and anytime to support their critical missions,” said TCS Government Solutions Group President Michael Bristol.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
