Comtech Mobile Datacom Inks U.S. Army MTS Program Contract

Comtech Mobile Datacom has received an initial funded order totaling $4.6 million to support the U.S. Army’s Movement Tracking System (MTS) program, the company announced July 15.

The order provides partial funding for the continued supply of satellite bandwidth, satellite network operations, engineering services and program management support through December 2011.

This order was placed under Comtech’s existing $384 million Blue Force Tracking (BFT-1) to support the MTS program which has now been consolidated under its direction. Comtech previously supported the MTS program under a separate $899.1 million contract that expired on July 12.

EMS To Provide Athena-Fidus Ka-band Hardware

EMS Technologies’ Defense and Space subsidiary has won a contract with Thales Alenia Space to provide Ka-band redundant low noise amplifier (RLNA) switching hardware to support Europe’s Athena-Fidus satellite.

EMS will deliver civil broadband Internet technologies, including a ferrite switch and driver electronics, to meet Thales Alenia Space’s 2013 launch date for the French-Italian telecommunications satellite. EMS Technologies will have switching hardware in use on over 20 military and commercial satellites as a result of the contract.

The RLNA is a key front-end component of the payload that employs selective beam-switching to provide coverage in high-demand areas.

Eutelsat Inks Ka-Sat Service Deal in Ukraine

Eutelsat Communications and its Tooway subsidiary Skylogic have entered into a distribution contract with Eurosat-Ukraine to deliver broadband services to Ukrainian customers via the Ka-sat satellite, the companies announced.

Eurosat-Ukraine is an affiliate of Altegrosky, a provider of VSAT satellite-delivered telecoms services in Russia and CIS countries. The company said it would package the Tooway services to offer download speeds of up to 10 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 4 Mbps, and would target rural areas with poor ADSL and mobile broadband coverage.

Gilat Selected to Supply SkyEdge 2 Turnkey Solution to Russian Yakutia Territory

Gilat has been selected by the Russian Yakutia Ministry of Finance to provide a full turnkey SkyEdge 2 broadband satellite network, which will serve new Ministry of Finance locations across the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic.

Yakutia has less than one million people spread across more than 3.1 million square kilometers. Gilat’s SkyEdge 2 solution will include hub installation, integration with previously installed SkyEdge platforms and service support and maintenance. The company also will oversee the installation of remote sites across Yakutia’s rugged geography.

The new satellite-based broadband network, designed for multi-star operation, aims to provide telephony, Internet and video-conferencing connectivity to new branches of the Ministry.

Harris Corp. Awarded $85 Million FAA Alaska Infrastructure Contract Extension

Harris Corp. received a 10-year, $85 million contract extension from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to continue developing the Alaskan Satellite Telecommunications Infrastructure (ASTI) system as its prime contractor.

The contract, which has a five-year base, with five one-year options, will see Harris replace and upgrade the existing satellite communications network that links the Alaskan Air Route Traffic Control Center in Anchorage with 64 FAA facilities throughout the region. The work order includes 59 remote sites, three flight service stations (FSS) and a test and training facility (TTF).

Harris also will replace and upgrade system components that have become obsolete or have been affected by the harsh Alaskan weather, as well as provide a new network management system, system security enhancements, logistics support and training.

Integral Systems Epoch IPS to Upgrade Sky Perfect JSAT Fleet

Integral Systems was awarded a contract by Sky Perfect JSAT to upgrade its ground systems with Integral’s Epoch Integrated Product Suite (IPS) satellite command and control software.

Integral Systems will provide both the software upgrade and a hardware refresh to support Sky Perfect JSAT’s JCSAT-13 satellite scheduled for liftoff in the fourth quarter of 2011. JCSAT-13 is equipped with 44 high-power Ku-band transponders and will replace JCSAT-4A at the 124 degrees East longitude orbital slot.

In a statement, Sky Perfect JSAT General Manager of Satellite Operations Division Shigetaka Shinozuka said the operator would use Integral’s Epoch IPS to better manage its satellites under a single system and have greater flexibility as it expands its fleet to provide a broader range of services to customers.

MDA Signs Second ADF Contract Extension to Provide UAV Support

Canadian satellite information solutions company MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) has been awarded a contract extension from the Australian Defense Force (ADF) to continue providing its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capabilities.

MDA will support UAV surveillance operations for the ADF’s deployed forces in Afghanistan for a third year. The timeframe for the extension is from January to December 2012.

MDA received its previous ADF contract extension in July 2010. The contract was first issued in September 2010.

Raytheon BBN Technologies Grabs $2.4 Million in DARPA Small Satellite Funding

Raytheon BBN Technologies was awarded $2.4 million in funding by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to design and integrate an information architecture for wireless small module satellites, parent company Raytheon announced.

The award is part of the DARPA’s System F6 program, which aims to support secure real-time communications among satellite modules and replace current large satellites with clusters of cheaper small modules that carry and share resources over a wireless network.

TCS Wins $60.8 Million Military Satellite Terminal Order

TeleCommunication Systems (TCS) has been awarded a new order with a ceiling value of $60.8 million to provide Tactical SHF Satellite Terminals (TSST) to the U.S. Army, the company announced.

The order is initially funded at $53.1 million and will be funded up to a total of $60.8 million if the options are fully exercised, TCS said. This award was made under the Army’s $5 billion World-Wide Satellite Systems (WWSS) contract vehicle in support of the Program Manager for the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (PM WIN-T). The terminals are scheduled for delivery in the second and third quarters of 2012.

Thales Alenia Space Named ASI’s Prime Contractor on Two Solar Oribital Satellite Programs

Thales Alenia Space has won Phase B contracts from Italian space agency ASI to support two parts of the Solar Orbiter satellite mission under the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Cosmic Vision program.

Acting as prime contractor, Thales will produce and deliver the entire Multi-Element Telescope for ESA’s Imaging and Spectroscopy (METIS) instrument and the Data Processing Unit (DPU) on its Solar Wind Analyzer (SWA).

The Solar Orbiter satellite’s mission is to observe the Sun and its environment at a distance of 0.28 Astronomical Units — or 28 percent of the mean distance between the Earth and the Sun.

The METIS telescope, supported by an Italian-led international scientific consortium, aims to provide simultaneous imaging of the full corona in polarized visible light and in the ultraviolet light produced by the ionized hydrogen. ESA scientists will use this data to study the origin and the mechanisms of solar heating and acceleration of the solar wind.