By Ben Ames

FORT MONMOUTH, N.J. - U.S. Army leaders are looking for bids to fulfill a $5 billion communications contract called World-Wide Satellite Systems (WWSS). The winner will provide services to both military and civilian federal agencies that need commercial satellite terminals.

Army officials expect the WWSS solicitation to be released to industry by the end of March, and awarded by the end of September.

The contract calls for six commercial satellite terminal types: Combat Support Service Very Small Aperture Terminals (CSS VSATs); fixed-station satellite terminals; flyaway VSATs; military-certified satellite terminals; prime mover/trailer-mounted satellite terminals; and deployable satellite Earth terminals.

Depending on user requirements, these satellite terminals may be required to operate on any military or commercial satellite in the C, Ku, X and Ka bands.

Federal agencies need many satellite terminals, from the Combat Support Service Very Small Aperture Terminals (inset) to deployable satellite Earth terminals (main photo).Click here to enlarge image

“We plan to award the WWSS contract to up to six prime contractors,” says Kevin Carroll, the U.S. Army’s Program Executive Officer, Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS). “Each prime contractor will be required to provide complete turnkey solutions, including hardware, software, support services and data.”

The government intends to award at least two contracts to small businesses that meet the full requirements of the contract, assuming a small business is within the competitive range, says Scott Mathews, project leader for the WWSS Project Office of PM DCATS.

The WWSS contract will serve a partnership of the Project Manager, Defense Communications and Army Transmission Systems (PM DCATS) and the Project Manager, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (PM WIN-T).

This comprehensive indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract will have a ceiling value of $5 billion over five years.

For more information about the World-Wide Satellite Systems contract, check the Industry Interactive Business Opportunities Page (IBOP) for Fort Monmouth at https://abop.monmouth.army.mil.