Special Report: The USA’s Transformational Communications Satellite System (TSAT)

Raytheon: C4ISR Future?
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As video communications is integrated into robots, soldiers, and UAVs, and network-centric warfare becomes the organizing principle of American warfighting, front-line demands for bandwidth are rising faster than the US military can add it. The Transformation Communications Satellite (TSAT) System is part of a larger effort by the US military to address that need, and close the gap.

DID’s FOCUS articles offer in-depth, updated looks at significant military programs of record – and TSAT is certainly significant. The final price tag on the entire program has been quoted at anywhere from $14-25 billion through 2016, including the satellites, the ground operations system, the satellite operations center and the cost of operations and maintenance. Lockheed Martin and Boeing each won over $600 million in risk reduction contracts to develop key TSAT SS satellite system technologies, and TSAT’s $2 billion TMOS ground-based network operations contract was already underway.

The TSAT constellation’s central role in next-generation US military infrastructure makes it worthy of in-depth treatment – but its survival was never assured. There was always a risk that outside events and incremental competitors could spell its end, just as they spelled the end of Motorola’s infamous Iridium project. This FOCUS article examines that possibility, even as it offers an overview of the US military’s vision for its communications infrastructure, how TSAT fits, the program’s challenges, and complete coverage of contracts and significant events.

The latest developments revolve around the end of the program. Despite a positive recent report from the GAO, TMOS/TSAT are being canceled outright as part of the program’s planned termination:

• Key Background – Why TSAT Is Thought to be Necessary
  
• Key Background – The Big Picture: TSAT and the Transformational Communications Architecture
  
• Briefing – What Is TSAT?
  
• Briefing – TMOS: TSAT’s Ground Component
  
• Briefing – TSAT: Issues & Decisions
  
• Briefing – The AEHF Alternative, and Lessons Learned for TSAT
  
• Briefing – TSAT: Program
  
• Analysis – TSAT’s Competitors – and Its Fate
  
• News – TSAT: Timeline and Ongoing Developments [updated]
  
• Appendix A – Additional Readings & Sources
  

BAE Acquires UAV Maker ACR for $14.7M

Silver Fox in Iraq

BAE Systems recently completed its $14.7 million acquisition of Advanced Ceramics Research, a Tucson, AZ-based maker of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ceramic materials for military and commercial application. The initial agreement was originally announced on March 12/09; this latest step represents its finalization and approval. The company will now become part of BAE Systems, Inc., headquartered in Rockville, MD.

Advanced Ceramics Research manufactures 3 UAV platforms, and provides related support capabilities to the U.S. armed forces and civilian government agencies:

Readiness a Problem for Canada’s Aircraft

EH101/ CH-149: on ice

Figures laid before the Canadian Senate’s Security and Defence Committee are calling the readiness of Canada’s maritime airframes into serious question. This is not a surprise when fleets are composed of aircraft that are 30 years old, or older. It is a surprise when that record is shared by a new platform.

$20M to General Dynamics for US Army PEO-EIS I.T. Services

General Dynamics Information Technology received a 5-year, $20 million contract (GS-35F-4357D) to provide IT services and program management support to the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS), Installation Management Systems-Army (IMS-A) Project Office, located at Fort Belvoir, VA.

The PEO-EIS executes about 40% of the Army’s I.T. budget, and plays a significant role in updating the systems that manage and affect soldiers on a daily basis…