Commercial SATCOM Needs
Space and Missile Systems Center Sponsored Study to Address the Feasibility of Expanding the Use of Commercial SATCOM for Specific Military Applications
Integral Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq:ISYS – News) announced today that Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE:ORB – News) has awarded the Company a contract to support the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Commercial SATCOM Architecture Options. Under the terms of the contract, Integral Systems will support Orbital in overall ground interface definition, ground integration and network management for wideband communications systems.
Integral Systems’ work on the Command and Control System-Consolidated (CCS-C) program makes it uniquely suited to provide its expertise to the U.S. Air Force (USAF). Managed by Integral Systems, the CCS-C program is the U.S. military’s only operational Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS)-based, multi-mission space operations center. Based on its experience, Integral Systems will ensure that architectures offered to the USAF include the integration of COTS-based products to prevent continued reliance on expensive proprietary control centers.
“The use of commercially available space technologies to increase operational and situational awareness is critical to strategic and tactical mission success,” said Robert Wright, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Military and Intelligence Group for Integral Systems. “In conjunction with Orbital Sciences Corporation, we will address how the Air Force leverages commercial SATCOM technologies and processes to ensure the warfighter has access to the secure, accurate and reliable military communications they need.”
SMC solicited BAA proposals to study the feasibility of using commercial satellite systems and components with minor modifications to meet selected military communications needs at military frequencies. SMC plans to use the study results to help the U. S. Government assess the ability of commercial SATCOM to provide feasible architectural solutions (i.e., cost, schedule, performance, acquisition approach) that can provide operationally relevant capabilities to the warfighter in the 2016 to 2025 timeframe, with an authority to proceed as early as Fiscal Year 2012.
The SMC, a subordinate unit of the Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base (AFB), Colo., is the center of technical excellence for researching, developing and purchasing military space systems. The center is also responsible for on-orbit check-out, testing, sustainment and maintenance of military satellite constellations and other DoD space systems. The center is located at Los Angeles AFB in El Segundo, Calif., four miles south of Los Angeles International Airport.
ABOUT COMMAND AND CONTROL SYSTEM — CONSOLIDATED (CCS-C)
CCS-C is currently configured to support MILSATCOM satellites across four systems: Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS); Milstar; Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS); and the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) system. CCS-C consists of high specification, commercially available computer servers and workstations running commercially available TT&C software packages on a local area network-based client/server architecture. CCS-C products are operational at the Air Education and Training Command, 533rd Training Squadron at Vandenberg AFB; the 14th Air Force, 50th Space Wing and the 3rd and 4th Space Operations Squadrons at Schriever AFB, Colo.
ABOUT INTEGRAL SYSTEMS
Integral Systems, Inc., is a global provider of products, systems and services for satellite command and control, telemetry and digital signal processing, data communications, enterprise network management and communications information assurance. We specialize in developing, managing and operating secure communications networks, both satellite and terrestrial, as well as systems and services to detect, characterize and geolocate sources of RF interference. Our customers include U.S. and foreign commercial, government, military and intelligence organizations. For almost 30 years, customers have relied on the Integral Systems family of companies (Integral Systems, Inc., Integral Systems Europe, Lumistar, Inc., Newpoint Technologies, Inc., RT Logic and SAT Corporation), as well as our services organization, Integral Systems Service Solutions (IS3), to design and deliver innovative commercial-based products, solutions and services that are cost-effective and reduce delivery schedules and risk. Our dedication to “The Integral Difference” has solidified long-term relationships with the U.S. DoD, NASA, NOAA and nearly every commercial satellite operator in the world. For more information, visit www.integ.com.
Contact:
Andrew Miller
Vice President, External Communications
Integral Systems, Inc.
Phone: 443.539.5124
amiller@integ.com