Pamir Highway in the desert landscape of the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan. Afghanistan is on the left (photo by Kymeta)

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) awarded an Indefinite-Delivery / Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract to ground based mobile satellite technology developer Kymeta to provide its u8 terminal and Kymeta Connect service in a combined open architecture for use across all military services. The new contract could earn Kymeta up to $950 million.

The terms of the deal call for Kymeta’s participation in the “maturation, demonstration and proliferation of capability across platforms and domains, leveraging open systems design, modern software and algorithm development in order to enable Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2),” according to the announcement.

“Kymeta is pleased to participate in the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) competitive category for connectivity,” said Rob Weitendorf, Vice President, Business Development, Kymeta. “Our advanced technology is proven effective for rapid deployment, offers the highest levels of security and encryption, and is essential for mission critical operations. We are confident in our ability to provide connectivity solutions to U.S. Department of Defense organizations through JADC2.”

The JADC2 contract award is part of a series of awards that the U.S. military hopes to use in order to provide development and operation of systems as a unified force across all domains — air, land, sea, space, cyber, and electromagnetic spectrum) in an open architecture.

Kymeta’s u8 is a flat panel antenna that is compatible with LEO and GEO satellite constellations. The Kymeta u8 is also available in a transportable configuration called the u8 GO, which was designed for rapid deployments.