By Dawn S. Onley
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, September 11, 2006

The Army has chosen six companies to compete for work under its five-year, $5 billion Worldwide Satellite Systems contract.

The winners include two large businesses -- Boeing Co. and General Dynamics Corp. -- and four small businesses: TeleCommunications Systems Inc. of Annapolis; DataPath Inc. of Duluth, Ga.; D&SCI of Eatontown, N.J.; and Globecomm Systems Inc. of Hauppauge, N.Y.

Under the contract, each company will offer turnkey commercial satellite terminals and the systems to run those terminals, including hardware, software, data and services such as logistics support.

The terminals include portable units that combat forces in remote areas are currently using for data access. Depending on user requirements, the systems will operate with any military or commercial satellite in the C, Ku, X and Ka bands.

Federal agencies, both defense and civilian, can order from the contract. Army officials said the contract's products and services will support federal communications missions, including disaster relief and homeland security initiatives.

Kevin Carroll, the Army's program executive officer for enterprise information systems, said federal purchasers don't need a background in satellite communications or need to be acquisition experts to reap the benefits of the contract.

"We've already come across potential customers who don't have the technical expertise or the acquisition expertise, so we'll assist them," said Scott A. Mathews, a project leader for the contract. "We've developed a streamlined delivery order process . . . to help customers convert their validated requirements into a request for a task execution plan, which the contracting officer will forward to each of the six vendors."

The contract was developed under a partnership of the project manager, Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems and the project manager, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical.

Dawn Onley is a senior writer with Government Computer News. For information on this and other contracts, go tohttp://www.gcn.com.