Come Together: DISA, GSA Streamline $5B Commercial SATCOM Procurement

A 2004 study by the Satellite Industry Association found that 80% of all US military satellite communication during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq was carried on commercial satellites. Then-US assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration, John P. Stenbit, estimated that the US military purchased between $200 million and $300 million worth of commercial satellite services during the first year of the war. Commercial satellite providers remain a mainstay of the US Department of Defense’s satellite communications capability. To streamline the process for the US military and US federal government agencies to lease communications satellite capacity from commercial providers, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and the General Services Administration (GSA) undertook an effort in 2009 to combine the commercial satellite communications (COMSATCOM) service contracts for the US military and US civilan government agencies into a 10-year, $5 billion contract vehicle… The contract, called the Future COMSATCOM Services Acquisition (FCSA), combines GSA’s SATCOM II and DISA’s Inmarsat and DISN Satellite Transmission Services-Global (DSTS-G) contracts and creates a common marketplace for the US government to acquire satellite capacity. SATCOM II is set to expire in May 2010; DSTS-G, in February 2011; and Inmarsat, in June 2012. The 3 […]