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Satnews Daily
March 14th, 2017

COMSAT Awarded Contract to Provide Department of Defense with Global Xpress SATCOM as a Service (SaaS)


COMSAT has been awarded a contract with the US Department of Defense (DoD) to support communication activities on the African continent with Inmarsat’s Global Xpress SATCOM as a Service (SaaS) capability.

Delivering end-to-end managed high-throughput service everywhere, Global Xpress SaaS provides 24/7/365 management, monitoring and support globally and delivers guaranteed data rates to satisfy mission requirements at a moment’s notice. Importantly, it allows users to leverage COMSATCOM for core functions, while seamlessly integrating with MILSATCOM for optimal redundancy, diversity, protection, scalability and global portability; the ultimate resilience approach. Government users travel from one location to another, and simply “plug in” to get what they need, when they need it. With solid service level agreements and committed information rates, users get what they ask for via easy to use terminals, and receive an assured quality of service.

As an Inmarsat value added reseller for Global Xpress, COMSAT has built out a secure terrestrial network that interconnects Inmarsat's infrastructure to COMSAT's global core Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. COMSAT's network supports Non-classified Internet Protocol Router/ Secret Internet Protocol Router (NIPR/SIPR) services over the Inmarsat Global Xpress network and enables the DoD to deploy globally with a robust information assurance posture. The three Global Xpress satellites currently on orbit have been online providing worldwide connectivity since December 2015 to support government global missions. Actively supporting U.S. government customers worldwide, Global Xpress complements U.S. government military satellite communications and delivers a highly reliable commercial Ka-band network that meets mobile, on-demand communication needs.

With a direct lineage from the COMSAT organization created by the Communications Satellite Act of 1962, COMSAT has played an important role in the SATCOM industry from its inception to present day.  Some of COMSAT’s key milestones include being a founding member of Intelsat operating the Marisat fleet network that provided the first mobile satellite communications services to the United States Navy.  COMSAT also founded Inmarsat’s initial operating system from the company’s two earth stations. COMSAT delivers a full portfolio of satellite solutions in C-Band, Ku-Band, Ka-Band, X-Band and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) as well as Inmarsat, Thuraya and Iridium services to U.S. civilian and military agencies for their most critical missions.

comsat.com/government/