[SatNews] TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. (TCS) (NASDAQ: TSYS) has been named as the sole awardee on an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract for Military Sealift Command's Next Generation Wideband commercial satellite communications infrastructure and service.
The contract, with a $315 million potential value and a guaranteed first-year minimum of $5 million, will replace the current MSC Afloat Bandwidth Efficient Satellite Transport commercial satellite communications infrastructure. The period of performance is four years plus four one-year option periods, November 3, 2010 through November 2, 2018. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO), is managing the contract activity and selected TCS from a full and open competitive action. TCS will provide the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) Next Generation Wideband communications with integrated systems and services for a highly secure, turnkey solution through a proven, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) antenna system and comprehensive wideband satellite coverage. TCS and its supporting partners will provide MSC with overall contract program management; bandwidth and managed services; engineering and integration expertise; information assurance management; and installation, operation and maintenance services.
The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command is the premier provider of ocean transportation for the Department of Defense. Originally named Military Sea Transportation Service, MSC was created to consolidate the Department of Defense's sealift assets and ensure that the U.S. military would be able to rapidly deploy troops, equipment and supplies by sea to any location in the world. The MSC mission has evolved subtly over time — for instance moving away from troop transport and moving toward combat logistics support and humanitarian relief. Through all this, MSC has proven her value again and again from the Korean War to the Vietnam War to the events following the September 11, 2001, terrorists attacks on the United States to tsunami relief efforts in Indonesian and hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast of the United States.
