Today is the deadline for contractors to respond to a Defense Information Systems Agency request for information about a $440 million satellite program to provide broadband services for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for a 15-year lease period.
Nextgov reports that DISA now expends somewhere in the range of $500 million for commercial satellite solutions — usually on short-term leases, which can quickly rack up costs.
DISAâs director for satellite communications Bruce Bennett said a long-term lease with commercial satellite operators, as described in the agency’s ASSIST proposal — shorthand for Assured SATCOM Services in Single Theater — could reduce costs while at the same time making reliable broadband service available to troops in theater.