[Satellite TODAY 03-21-11] The U.S. Army’s Force 21 Battle Command Brigade placed $71.1 million in Blue Force Tracking 2 (BFT-2) orders with ViaSat under the indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity BFT-2 contract vehicle the Pentagon signed with ViaSat in July, the company announced March 18.
    In addition to new terminals, the order will see ViaSat provide additional terrestrial Internet connectivity, support for network operations and production vehicular transceivers. “These orders will enable ViaSat to accelerate ground vehicular transceiver production and support Army installation and field testing of the BFT-2 system this year,” ViaSat Vice President Phil Berry said in a statement.
    The ViaSat BFT-2 network aims to transport command and control messages and situational awareness updates at higher data rates than the legacy BFT-1 network. The next generation BFT-2 network also aims to improve situational awareness latency from minutes to seconds.
    Separately, ViaSat announced that it signed a multi-year agreement with Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) to provide Ka-band satellite service in the Middle East using the ABS-7 satellite. The bandwidth will be used for fixed and mobile satellite services as a part of ViaSat’s expansion of its Yonder mobile satellite network from global Ku-band coverage to Ka-band.