Government/Military

Orbit Technology Group won a contract with the French Navy worth over $4 million, to supply Ku-Band and C-Band marine satellite communication systems from OrSat, Orbit announced May 21.     Orbit said its systems aim to provide the French Navy with continuous, high speed, two-way connectivity for reception and transmission of voice, data and Internet...

The U.S. Air Force said that a report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which claimed that the U.S. military GPS system is experiencing serious degradation, is not accurate, according to a May 25 statement by Air Force Col. Dave Buckman.     “The issue is under control,” said Buckman in an online press...

Alliant Techsystems (ATK) successfully launched TacSat-3 at 11:55 p.m. UTC on May 19 after it was delayed in order to remove off shore boaters from the exclusion area, ATK announced May 20.     SRA International provided its spacecraft command language (SCL) software to provide autonomous control of critical flight operations.  ATK served as the prime...

ViaSat received certification from the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for its ruggedized AN/PSC-14 Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) integrated manpack terminal, ViaSat announced May 26.     The certification enables ViaSat to fulfill orders for AN/PSC-14 terminals from U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other authorized international government customers.     ViaSat...

Atrexx, a German satellite service provider, won a U.S. military contract to provide satellite-based Internet connectivity for the U.S. Air Force’s Eagle Vision program in Europe, Atrexx announced May 26.    The Eagle Vision program is a ground station for the reception of data from civilian remote sensing satellites and supports the U.S. Navy in...

Comtech Mobile Datacom received $6 million worth of Movement Tracking System (MTS) orders from the U.S. Army under its existing supply contract, Comtech announced May 28.     The contract orders are for the supply of satellite network operations management, program management, installation, training and technical support services, and support ongoing MTS program activities in the...

L-3 Linkabit completed the integration and testing of a Wide Band-Beyond Line of Sight (WB-BLOS) capability for U.S. Army combat vehicles, the company announced June 1.     L-3 Linkabit said the deployment will enable Army units to have more communications system in the field to support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan.     The initiative used...

Lockheed Martin won a $1.5 billion contract to build the third Space Based Infrared Systems Geosynchronous Earth Orbit satellite, the U.S. Air Force announced May 29.     The cost-plus, fixed fee basis contract also includes the modification of related ground systems to handle the operations of three payloads simultaneously. Of the total contract amount, $1.1...

Swiss aerospace, defense and security technology group, Ruag has purchased Oerlikon Space AG, the space division of Swiss technology developer Oerlikon for an undisclosed amount of cash, Oerlikon announced June 2.     Oerlikon Space AG was defined as a non-core business by its parent company in 2008 and was sold due to its relatively small...

The bandwidth needs of the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Department of Defense and its coalition forces have increased to the point where the U.S. government now relies on commercial satellite providers for 80 percent of its total capacity to meet mission requirements, according to Bill Schmidt, vice president of government marketing for Xtar.     ...