Posts Tagged ‘Acquisition’
Better Buying for SATCOM
Military Information Technology – Commercial satellite operators are hailing a recently approved congressional provision that encourages the Department of Defense to investigate using multi-year leases for commercial satellite services and for procuring government-owned payloads on commercial satellites. Signed by President Obama in late 2013, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2014 includes…
Read MorePrivate SATCOM’s Promise
Satellite providers find military demands tough to plan for C4ISR & Networks – At the peak of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the demand for high-definition full motion video was so intense that about 90 percent of the bandwidth used by U.S. Central Command was supplied by commercial satellites, said Robert Tipton Osterthaler, CEO…
Read MoreCongress and Its Recent Role in COMSATCOM Acquisition Reform
Last month, Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI, 8th District), chairman of the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee, authored an opinion piece in Space News about procuring commercial satellite services. He argued for the urgent need to change this process to save money, but more importantly, to protect our armed forces. XTAR strongly supports the Congressman’s…
Read MoreWGS Sales to Allies Undermine U.S. Comsatcom Industry
Space News – January 27, 2014 Op-Ed by Andrew Ruszkowski – The overseas combat operations of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down just as the Department of Defense has begun to focus on making more efficient use of dwindling budgets and scarce resources. Key DoD leaders, including those at the U.S. Air Force’s…
Read MoreAt the Crossroads of Technology and Comfort
DoD COMSATCOM acquisition reform is a complicated subject, even without the current acquisition process that stands in the way. Driven by budget concerns – having to cut budget spend in the face of sequestration and other economic factors that are reducing the money available to DoD – the question is this: Can DoD continue to…
Read MoreBalancing Bandwidth Needs with Increased Efficiency
Via Satellite – U.S. DoD’s needs for innovation investments to maximize all assets (Milsatcom & commercial) has never been greater. With the drawdown in Afghanistan complete and new hot spots emerging, U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) military planners must wrestle with both shrinking defense budgets and fewer ground forces at their command. The need for innovation investments…
Read MoreMaintaining Security for Hosted Payloads
I recently participated in the annual Hosted Payload Summit here in Washington, D.C. The critical issue of security for government users of hosted payloads was top of everyone’s mind. These users will not deploy their sensitive and critical applications on hosted payloads if they feel that cyber-security measures have not been well defined and successfully…
Read More90-Day Study: The Utilization Distraction
The working group tasked to accomplish Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics) Frank Kendall’s 90-Day Study on COMSATCOM acquisition reform appears to have veered off track. We are hearing reports that it will go no further with Mr. Kendall’s core assignment until it addresses the question of DoD “bandwidth utilization”. This tangential issue…
Read MoreThe Big Picture: Forest & Trees
General William L. Shelton, Air Force Space Command, in recent remarks described DoD’s current spending on space programs of record as “locked in” until the mid-2020s. Concluding DoD is locked into the current spending path without viable alternatives for ten or more years belies the many good reform efforts of other parties. These include the…
Read MoreApples-to-Satellites: What Are We Comparing?
The Senate Armed Services Committee recently requested five-, 10-, and 25-year strategic plans from DoD for the appropriate blend of military and commercial satellite bandwidth. Presumably, the committee is seeking cost-avoidance in the present and cost-savings in the long run. I have not actually seen any attempt at this type of comparison for several years. Industry…
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