[SatNews] Using COTS-based products, the Company will now ensure such are part of the crucial architecture integration for the USAF...

Integral Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq:ISYS) has announced that Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE:ORB) has awarded the Company a contract to support the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for Commercial SATCOM Architecture Options. Under the terms of the contract, Integral Systems will support Orbital in overall ground interface definition, ground integration and network management for wideband communications systems. Integral Systems' work on the Command and Control System-Consolidated (CCS-C) program makes it uniquely suited to provide its expertise to the U.S. Air Force (USAF). Managed by Integral Systems, the CCS-C program is the U.S. military's only operational Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS)-based, multi-mission space operations center. Based on its experience, Integral Systems will ensure that architectures offered to the USAF include the integration of COTS-based products to prevent continued reliance on expensive proprietary control centers.

SMC solicited BAA proposals to study the feasibility of using commercial satellite systems and components with minor modifications to meet selected military communications needs at military frequencies. SMC plans to use the study results to help the U. S. Government assess the ability of commercial SATCOM to provide feasible architectural solutions (i.e., cost, schedule, performance, acquisition approach) that can provide operationally relevant capabilities to the warfighter in the 2016 to 2025 timeframe, with an authority to proceed as early as Fiscal Year 2012. The SMC, a subordinate unit of the Air Force Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base (AFB), Colo., is the center of technical excellence for researching, developing and purchasing military space systems. The center is also responsible for on-orbit check-out, testing, sustainment and maintenance of military satellite constellations and other DoD space systems. The center is located at Los Angeles AFB in El Segundo, Calif., four miles south of Los Angeles International Airport.

CS-C is currently configured to support MILSATCOM satellites across four systems: Defense Satellite Communications System (DSCS); Milstar; Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS); and the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) system. CCS-C consists of high specification, commercially available computer servers and workstations running commercially available TT&C software packages on a local area network-based client/server architecture. CCS-C products are operational at the Air Education and Training Command, 533rd Training Squadron at Vandenberg AFB; the 14th Air Force, 50th Space Wing and the 3rd and 4th Space Operations Squadrons at Schriever AFB, Colo.