US Military Pays $80.4M for Iridium Services

Iridium satellite(click to view full) Back in DID’s article about the Transformation Satellite Network (T-SAT), we noted Iridium’s corporate fiasco as something of a cautionary example associated with ultra-complex, expensive communications architectures and changing assumptions. Motorola’s multi-billion dollar satellite network was eventually sold for pennies on the dollar, and now carries very low-bandwidth traffic for the US military. Along these lines, Iridium Government Services LLC in Tempe, AZ, was recently awarded a pair of sole-source estimated firm-fixed-price contracts by the Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization – National Capital Region. The first contract is a $72 million contract for commercial mobile satellite services for voice, data, and pager services utilizing the Iridium satellite constellation. The airtime services are provided to the Department of Defense (DoD) and other government users throughout the world registered to the DoD gateway and will be performed at the DoD gateway facility in Hawaii and/or contractor’s facilities (HC1047-06-C-4009). An additional $8.4 million contract will support the DISN Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS) DoD gateway itself, and will be performed at the DoD gateway facility in Hawaii and/or contractor’s facilities. The EMSS program provides global voice and messaging services to the Department of Defense and other government users […]