The Defense Department, and, where appropriate, Congress, must eliminate hurdles that inhibit it from exercising innovative commercial satellite communication (COMSATCOM) business arrangements that enable more efficient and responsive acquisition of the COMSATCOM services it needs, Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) said in a white paper obtained by Defense Daily.
The white paper, called Impediments and New Approaches for Leveraging Commercial Satellite Communications (COMSATCOM) in Support of the Air Force and Defense Department, builds a case for action to fund and execute a demonstration proving the feasibility of buying, as opposed to leasing, COMSATCOM using innovative business arrangements, Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Connie Dillon said in a recent e-mail. The paper, Dillon said, pulls together many extensive studies and identifies both impediments and remedies to exploit potential cost and schedule benefits of COMSATCOM to effectively and affordably support DoD and Air Force missions.
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| Photo: Air Force. |
Following the 9/11 terror attacks, DoD’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drove a tremendous need for COMSATCOM services, which it procured via leases on the spot market, which commanded top prices and, according to the white paper, set the precedent to buy COMSATCOM services in the most inefficient way. Ten years later, DoD continues to inefficiently buy COMSATCOM services on the spot market and given the fiscal realities of a dwindling budgets, AFSPC, in the white paper, urges DoD to address impediments to entering into innovative business arrangements to acquire COMSATCOM services.
Commercial satellite industry leaders have been frustrated by DoD’s spot market approach to acquiring SATCOM. Intelsat General CEO Kay Sears told Defense Daily last November DoD’s spot market buying stunts the industry’s growth because it doesn’t know where, nor when, to invest. Sears said spot market buying doesn’t give industry a signal as to how long it is going to need that capability and/or whether there are enhancements that are needed to that capability (Defense Daily, Nov. 29).
SES Vice President for Communications and Government Affairs Nicole Robinson said yesterday the Air Force’s acknowledgement that DoD and Congress must fix or eliminate hurdles that prevent it from entering innovative COMSATCOM business arrangements was “absolutely key.” Echoing Sears’ remarks, Robinson said in an e-mail with the authority to enter into long-term commitments as well as the authority to precommit to COMSATCOM services, DoD will become the type of marquee customer on behalf of whom the satellite industry will make investments to support.
“As only 15 percent of revenues for global satellite operators come from DoD,” Robinson said. “It’s important that they be better positioned to plan and purchase as our core commercial customers do–and ensure they have access to capability that is both mission critical, as well as competitively priced.”
AFSPC in the white paper said DoD should establish a stable budget for COMSATCOM, including reflecting multi-year funding in the services’ total obligation authority and setting it apart from the annual uncertainty it said the DoD process known as Planning, Programming, Budgeting and Execution (PPBE) brings. The white paper suggested establishing an ongoing procurement budget line item, adding that the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which procures COMSATCOM for DoD, has a working capital fund to manage and buy bandwidth for terrestrial communications and that this could be applied to satellite communications.
AFSPC said in the white paper an alternative would be to establish a procurement account dedicated to chase opportunistic COMSATCOM deals, but without Congress taking action to allow multi-year budgeting, DoD won’t be able to capitalize on efficient COMSATCOM acquisition. XTAR Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing Andrew Ruszkowski said in an e-mail the plan to use procurement dollars to acquire COMSATCOM infrastructure will enable DoD to get a substantially better price than it does in its usual 12-month leases.
DoD has been procuring COMSATCOM services over Africa from a Chinese company with significant Chinese government ownership interest because of its proclivity to buy short-term, spot-market COMSATCOM services. The House Armed Services Committee (HASC), in its fiscal year 2014 authorization report, said U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) in 2012 required operationally critical and expedited service for COMSATCOM bandwidth to cover a wide geographic area. At the time, DoD said the only option to meet this need was to obtain a lease through this Chinese company, but after a year elapsed, the lease was renewed because DoD failed to take other measures.
The Air Force looks to move forward toward long-term purchasing of COMSATCOM with the recent release of a request for information (RFI) posted on Federal Business Opportunities. The Air Force said in its RFI it was contemplating the feasibility of procuring on-orbit transponders to support Ku-band communications for AFRICOM, specifically over western Africa. The Air Force said the intent was to identify sources to support a small military communications pathfinder while demonstrating risk mitigation steps toward future innovative, affordable procurement of long-term COMSATCOM capabilities.
Dillon said the white paper was primarily authored by members of the AFSPC headquarters staff and tasked by AFSPC Requirements Director Maj. Gen. Martin Whelan.