By Geoff Fein
In the coming year, the Navy is planning to outfit its surface fleet with the latest in commercial satellite communications (SATCOM) terminals to increase the amount of data transferred to ships at sea, according to a service official.
The Commercial Broadband Satellite Program (CBSP), run out of the Program Executive Office Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (PEO C4I), will enable the Navy to put shipboard terminals aboard multiple ships to access commercial satellite services that include bandwidth in the sky, as well as the shore connectivity, back to the Navy points of presence, Kai Tang, satellite communication division director at PEO C4I, said during a teleconference with reporters last week.
“At this point, as we are in the RDC, or rapid deployment capability, stage of CBSP, Tang said. “We intended to field up to 49 ships as quickly as we can.”
In May, Harris Corp. [HRS] was awarded a $15.1 million initial order for the Multi-Band Shipboard Satellite Communications System for force level ships, which includes amphibious command and amphibious assault ships, the two Navy hospital ships, submarine tenders and aircraft carriers.
In June Harris received a $17.5 million contract for unit level ships, which includes LSDs, LPDs, cruisers, destroyers and eventually the Littoral Combat Ship.
A third contract for $1.2 million will be awarded Oct. 16 for small ship variants, which includes Patrol Coastal and Mine Counter Measure ships.
As CBSP transitions to an acquisition program of record, the total fielding requirement encompasses somewhere on the order of 200 ships, Tang noted. “Everything from aircraft carriers down to the patrol coastal ships.”
For the initial implementation of CBSP, PEO C4I tried to focus as much as it could on what Tang referred to as disadvantaged or more disadvantaged users. “Folks that currently depend on INMARSAT or INMARSAT HSD (High Speed Data)…the more disadvantaged user that has the least amount of throughput that they can use.
“That includes Patrol Coastal ships, Mine Counter Measure ships and frigates,” he added.
“We believe there are a lot of disadvantaged users out there especially if you consider that applications today are becoming more and more bandwidth intensive, with PowerPoints and images, JPEGS and video…You Tube…all this stuff that is going on…there is a lot more bandwidth intensive applications being used within the Navy,” Tang explained. “We are pretty excited about CBSP and what it is going to provide to sailors both in accomplishing their mission which includes things like interdiction operations, biometrics applications, but also in terms of quality of life for the sailors.”
One thing that came up during the initial phase of CBSP discussions, Tang said, was how the Navy can we have hundreds or even thousands of sailors aboard a single ship using systems with such low data rates. “So CBSP is a critical program in that it’s really going to help provide that increase in quality of life for sailors as well as the ability to accomplish the mission.”
CBSP is also a component of the Navy’s efforts to neck down from seven SATCOM terminal programs to two, he added.
Work is being done to refine and finesse the fielding plan and the priorities to best determine which ships will be the first to get CBSP, Tang said. “We are still juggling which ships are the right ones to get CBSP in this RDC period.”
Tang said PEO C4I would like to transition CBSP to an acquisition program of record in calendar year 2009.
“If that were to go forward, we would then be able to start fielding beyond the 49 ships,” he added. “Obviously we would have our own acquisition processes, testing, documentation, that we have to make sure we get completed.”
Once that transition to a program of record occurs, then PEO C4I would be intent on fielding CBSP on additional ships beyond the first 49, Tang said.
PEO C4I is also working with the Military Sealift Command to see where it makes sense to field CBSP, he added.
But whichever ships end up first in line for CBSP, Tang acknowledged installation will take time.
“It will not happen instantaneously. This is obviously because of multiple things. One big issue is whether we have enough resources, especially dollars, but also the other issue being primarily our ships are constantly moving,” he said. “We have to try and make sure we install on ships as they come into the pier and come in for their yard periods, and certainly an install of a SATCOM terminal doesn’t happen over night. It’s not a one-week affair. It takes several weeks, so you have to find those windows of opportunity or yard availabilities.”
PEO C4I is also working with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) on developing a request for proposals (RFP) for a single vendor to provide the Navy with world-wide connectivity for all three terminal variants, Tang said.
“There was a synopsis put out this year to give vendors a look at what we were envisioning,” he said. “We’d like to go out and award a contract in calendar year 2009, so it would obviously align with our terminals starting to field.”
Tang noted the effort to provide connectivity to the Navy will be a challenge for industry.
“There are very few services that have the breadth and scope of commercial bandwidth requirements that we have, not only in the sense of capacity, but in the sense of coverage. So it is going to be a real challenge not just for us but for the commercial industry to come up with a consolidated proposal that meets all of our needs, ultimately for 200 ships with CBSP and all operating at fairly high data rates and, again, keeping mind that you trying to provide service for a user, or 200 users, that are moving all around the globe,” he said.
“That becomes a quite a large challenge for the Navy and commercial industry. I couldn’t tell you how much it might cost to do that because I don’t have anything to compare it to at this time,” Tang added.
Another goal of the RFP is to provide a document to industry that will foster innovation, Tang said.
“We don’t want to tie them down to a particular way of doing things. We are really hoping to craft a RFP that will allow industry to be as innovative and creative as they can to give us the right kind of service when we need it,” he said. “Hopefully, that may translate to savings as well for the government.”
Tang added that the search for a single vendor doesn’t mean one company will be solely responsible for everything.
“I am looking for one person to be my contractual point of contact. There are multiple solutions out there that could be provided. There may be satellite operators and owners who can provide a full solution based on what they have and own. Or there may be integrators or resellers who will provide [service] based on arrangements and subcontracting arrangements they make with multiple satellite operators. So again, this kind of goes back to what we are trying to do with DISA–maximizing innovation that we are getting from industry.”
Tang does not envision a need for the winning company to launch new satellites for this effort.
“That certainly falls outside of what I would be asking for, in terms of, I would be asking for service, not so much ownership, of any satellites,” he said.