WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army plans to launch later this year a new procurement of satellite communications terminals through the so-called Family of Terminals – Large (FoT-L) program.
The Army is trying to consolidate as many as six types of terminals into just two variants, said a Jan. 12 request for information from the Army’s program office that oversees tactical networks, based at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
Having fewer large terminal antenna variants is a key goal, said the RFI, due to the logistics burden and rising cost of operating aging equipment.
The service today operates increasingly obsolete terminals that are incompatible with modern space systems such as high-throughput satellites in geostationary and medium Earth orbits.
The Jan. 12 request is the second RFI issued by the Army for the family of terminals. After the first RFI it put out last summer, and based on the responses it received, the Army concluded that it needed to further refine its guidance to vendors and get additional insight on industry capabilities.
Responses to the second RFI are due Feb. 26. The program office said it plans to release a draft request for industry bids later this year.
The new terminals have to be able to operate across multiple satellite frequency bands, including X, Ku, and Ka-band, and communicate with commercial high-throughput satellites, as well as DoD’s Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) constellation.
Satellite terminals are the ground-based equipment that provides an interface between terrestrial users and satellite communications systems through tracking antennas. The Army is seeking modern terminals that enable voice, data and video communication provided by satellites in geostationary and medium Earth orbits. This procurement does not include terminals for low Earth orbit satellite networks.
According to briefing charts the program office posted with the solicitation, one of the challenges in this…
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