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U.S. Navy commercial broadband satellite program services contract worth up to $980m awarded to Inmarsat Government

11 Oct 2022

 U.S. Government announced that the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has awarded the company the U.S. Navy Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP) Satellite Services Contract (CSSC II) for complex and worldwide end-to-end commercial satellite communications (SATCOM) services. An Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, the ceiling value of the award is $980M over a 10-year period.

Under the contract, Inmarsat Government will deliver worldwide managed telecommunications services, including satellite capabilities via Inmarsat Global Xpress Ka-band, as well as C-, Ku- and X-band frequencies, for mobile and fixed satellite services on crewed and uncrewed maritime, airborne and ground platforms. The company will also provide commercial teleport services; backhaul connectivity; monitoring and control; operations; information assurance and cybersecurity.

The CSSC II program is the follow-on to the CSSC contract where Inmarsat Government was the prime contractor, delivering proven, reliable connectivity between the Navy's global fleet of shipboard terminals and shore-based telecommunications infrastructure.

Under the newly-awarded CSSC II contract, the company will provide end-to-end SATCOM services capable of supporting approximately 400 simultaneous full period, full duplex, simplex and simplex broadcast connections/modems between a designated point of presence and the end user terminal through the means of space and terrestrial connectivity. Solution benefits include:

Global network infrastructure –  A complete, efficient, scalable and resilient in-place solution that is compliant with Information Assurance requirements and includes redundant commercial teleports and a global Multiple Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) terrestrial backhaul network for reach back to designated points of presence.

Resilient space segment and interoperability with Military SATCOM – Required user terminal data throughput and quality of service requirements to include global Military Ka augmentation and Arctic services on Inmarsat’s forthcoming Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO) GX10A/B satellites.

Cybersecurity – Inmarsat Government has a proven track record of providing comprehensive cybersecurity services, including the ability to respond to vulnerabilities and incidents in accordance with the Risk Management Framework, by evaluating the holistic nature of the risk factors, incidents, and mitigation techniques.

Susan Miller, Chief Executive Officer, Inmarsat Government, said: “Inmarsat Government is proud to be selected as the end-to-end SATCOM provider under the U.S. Navy CSSC II contract. Inmarsat Government has delivered proven, reliable and resilient worldwide capabilities to the U.S. Navy over the past decade, and we look forward to continuing our support to their highly demanding operations at sea, in the air and on the ground, anywhere in the world. Our team is honored to continue the delivery of the required coverage, capacity, throughput and information assurance, augmenting military telecommunications systems and providing redundancy and additional capability to meet critical mission requirements.

“Inmarsat Government’s experience supporting the United States Navy under the preceding contract as well as CSSC II and operating other large, integrated satellite/terrestrial maritime networks for the Department of Defense and U.S. federal agencies will be applied fully to the management and operations of the CBSP CSSC II network, resulting in a cost-effective, always-available, interference-free solution that exceeds the Navy’s mission demands.”