[Satellite TODAY 01-04-12] Comtech Mobile Datacom has received multiple orders totaling $16.6 million to support the U.S. Army’s Movement Tracking System (MTS) and Blue-Force Tracking-1 (BFT-1) programs, parent company Comtech announced Jan. 3.

   The orders, placed under the Army’s $384 million BFT program office contract with Comtech, bring the company’s total orders received to-date to $378.2 million. The first order for $12 million included the supply of MT-2012 mobile satellite transceivers. The second order was for the continued supply of satellite bandwidth, satellite network operations, engineering services and program management to support the MTS program through March 2012. Additional orders totaling about $600,000 were placed for engineering services to develop an operational interface between the MTS network and a standard FBCB2 protocol.

   Comtech CEO Fred Kornberg said the company continues to have ongoing discussions with the U.S. Army related to a potential multi-year sustainment contract that includes licensing of its intellectual property to support the BFT-1 and MTS programs.

   “We also believe the receipt of additional hardware orders demonstrates the ongoing importance of the U.S. Army’s BFT-1 and MTS satellite tracking communication systems which currently support deployed U.S. forces worldwide,” Kornberg said in a statement.