DISA headquarters. Photo: Fort George G. Meade Public Affairs Office

[Via Satellite 10-21-13] The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has awarded a $400 million, multi-year, fixed-price contract to Iridium Communications to provide satellite airtime services to meet the communications needs of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and their federal partners. This five-year contract renews the provision for delivering Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services (EMSS) airtime effective Oct. 22. Iridium will provide unlimited global secure and unsecure voice, low and high-speed data, paging and Distributed Tactical Communications System (DTCS) services for an unlimited number of DoD and other federal government subscribers.

Iridium’s U.S. government (USG) service revenue for the full-year 2012 was $61.8 million. The EMSS fixed-price rate in each of the five contract years is $64 million in fiscal year 2014, $72 million in 2015 and $88 million in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

In 2012, USG services and support made up 20 percent of Iridium’s revenues. USG subscribers on the Iridium network have grown from 32,000 to more than 51,000 during the last five-year contract period as services grew from basic voice and paging, to data and Netted Iridium with growing applications across all the services. According to the Defense Business Board fiscal year 2013 report to the Secretary of Defense, commercial satellite communications currently supports about 40 percent of the DoD’s satellite communication needs. Northern Sky Research (NSR), a global leader providing satellite industry market research, predicts this requirement will grow by 68 percent over the next decade. The report concludes: “SATCOM is critical to supporting the warfighter, and DoD will require additional capacity in the future as new missions evolve and communication technologies further develop. To meet DoD’s needs, the commercial satellite sector is a cost-effective source for obtaining technologically advanced services.”