ViaSat Selected by U.S. Army to Supply Next Generation Blue Force Tracking

21 July 2010

ViaSat Inc. has received a $477 million IDIQ contract to supply the next generation of high speed, high capacity, low latency Blue Force Tracking (BFT) equipment to the U.S. Army as part of the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) Program. In addition to being selected as the provider for this faster and more accurate command and control satellite communication system, ViaSat also received the first delivery order for $37.7 million to fund deliveries of first article and initial production terminals and other ground networking equipment.

Armed forces use BFT to view regularly updated troop positions on screens in vehicles and aircraft to differentiate between friendly and enemy forces. These awards signal the transition of the BFT program from a proprietary network to BFT-2, an open IP-standard communication network.

Previously, ViaSat had delivered prototype second generation BFT-2 terminals under contract to Northrop Grumman and then a Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) award from the U.S. Army for system testing. The units met network capacity requirements and demonstrated data throughput that far exceeded specifications. The efficiency gain and latency reduction improve situational awareness and accuracy, and enable satellite channels to accommodate more simultaneous users and messages.

A variety of equipment and services are included in the new BFT-2 awards:

Small BFT-2 satellite terminals for a variety of ground vehicles and small aircraft

Hub equipment for high-speed two-way access to ground and airborne terminals

Network Operations Center (NOC) equipment for overall network monitoring and control

Backbone network to connect all FBCB2 NOCs into a single network for worldwide interoperability

Integration with FBCB2 software

Engineering services in support of the BFT-2 network