A navy amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge. Photo: U.S. Navy

[Via Satellite 04-25-2014] Harris has been awarded an eight-year $133 million contract from the U.S. Navy to provide shipboard terminals that give access to high-bandwidth voice and data communications. Harris will provide up to 120 terminals, on top of the 70 that were already provided since 2008 under the Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP) Unit Level Variant (ULV) contract.

This latest contract brings the total potential value of CBSP ULV and Force Level Variant contract awards to more than $250 million through the year 2022. The CBSP ULV program brings global, commercial, end-to-end telecom services to the Navy.

The Harris terminals offer high-speed Internet and video communications to small combatant and support ships, and are also used onboard Navy amphibious assault ships. They provide X-band operation over existing military satellites and allow the option of Ka-band operation for military or commercial future deployed satellite systems.