Posts Tagged ‘Acquisition’
DoD Strategy: Choose the Right Satellite Technology
The DoD should use this time of relatively low tempo operations to throw off the shackles and take a fresh look at how it addresses SATCOM capabilities for future mission requirements. Troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is underway. Units are coming home. Shouldn’t a major change like this, after such a prolonged war focus, present the…
Read MoreWould WGS International Partnerships Give DoD the Cutting Edge?
Recently, Frank Kendall warned that the U.S. military may soon fall behind in the arms technology race. Our potential adversaries are modernizing all of their capabilities, and we are trying to strategize how to counter this progress. In the current budgetary environment, can we hold tight to the existing satellite communications framework and still achieve this…
Read MoreBoeing Foresees Additional WGS Satellite Orders
Space News – The U.S. Air Force is discussing the possibility of building at least two more Wideband Global Satcom communications satellites with funding from potential international partners, Boeing Network and Space Systems President Roger Krone said May 13. Krone said in a briefing with reporters he believes there is enough international appetite for additional satellites.…
Read MoreA Look at “S4” of Federal Q1 &Q2 of FY 2014
By Guest Blogger Lt. General William Donahue, USAF (Ret.) – The consequences of “S4” (sequestration, shutdown, Snowden, and snow) were real and material during the first half of FY 2014. In spite of all the “S” that hit the fan, I applaud the successful budget deal that guided our leaders back toward their real job: funding the…
Read MoreCOMSATCOM Acquisition Primer – How Did We Get Here?
An XTAR Blog Series As I said in my introductory post to this series, DoD acquisition reform for commercial satcom is a complicated subject. Here are some of what I believe to be the reasons why this process has become so difficult, including the origins and history behind the erratic efforts at reform over the…
Read MoreCOMSATCOM Acquisition Primer Kick Off
An XTAR Blog Series Like our fellow American commercial satellite operators, XTAR is deeply embroiled in the debate surrounding COMSATCOM acquisition reform. As a service provider to U.S. Government users for over a decade, we’ve seen all types of attempted reforms – the entire gamut – from prudence to excess.
Read MoreU.S. Defense Firms Eye International Opportunities in a Slowing National Market
Via Satellite – Leading system integrators, ground-based and satellite operators weigh in how they see the global government market evolving in the next few years, particularly in the Pacific Rim, Africa and the Middle East.
Read MoreCOMSATCOM Policy Struggles Continue Between Providers, DoD
Defense Daily – The Defense Department and commercial satellite communication (COMSATCOM) providers continue to disagree over how the service should handle future acquisition policy in an era of declining defense spending.
Read MoreSatellite Industry Frets About Future Military Business
National Defense – The Pentagon spends about a billion dollars a year on satellite communications services from commercial vendors, which supply about 80 percent of the military’s demand. The industry is worried, however, about the future of its Defense Department business, for several reasons.
Read MoreSatcom Firms Seek Answers on Bandwidth Agreement
Defense News – One year ago, top Pentagon officials pledged to find a new way to work with the commercial satellite industry. And it was welcome news. Yet despite the backing of Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s top acquisitions official, nothing has changed. Indeed, a study that Kendall promised industry during last year’s SATELLITE 2013 Conference in…
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