[SatNews] ViaSat Inc. (Nasdaq: VSAT) has received delivery orders from PM Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below totaling $13.8 million under its Blue Force Tracking 2 (BFT-2) IDIQ contract. These contracts include the installation and test of production satellite ground station and satellite network control center equipment as well as L-band bandwidth leasing, network ground equipment, and thousands of additional production vehicular transceivers. These next generation BFT-2 systems are designed to enable much faster situational awareness updates and higher transmission speeds.

Selected to upgrade the US Army and Marine Corps Blue Force Tracking network, ViaSat brings real-time situational awareness and better networking capabilities to the warfighter with BFT-2. ViaSat's next-generation Blue Force Tracking transceivers provide dramatic improvements in situational awareness through faster Position Location Information (PLI) refresh rates and greater information throughput features. This BFT-2 system delivers improved network efficiency and reduces the Department of Defense’s total operational expenditure for the specified capability.

With BFT-2, network users can achieve real-time position accuracy by operating through a Ground Vehicular Transceiver or Aviation Transceiver to one of up to ten satellite channels back to a Satellite Ground Station (SGS). The average round-trip message latency through the network has been demonstrated and proven to be less than 2 seconds.

The following equipment and services are included in the new BFT-2:  

• Small BFT-2 satellite terminals for a variety of ground vehicles and small aircraft
• Hub equipment for high-speed two-way access to ground and airborne terminals
• FIPS 140-2 Level 2 data link security to protect from adversarial traffic analysis and data probing
• Network Operations Center (NOC) equipment for overall network monitoring and control
• Backbone network to connect all FBCB2 NOCs into a single network for worldwide interoperability
• Integration with FBCB2 software
• Engineering services in support of the BFT-2 network

"These follow on task orders demonstrate our customer's commitment to our new system and the desire to transition to the BFT-2 architecture as quickly as possible," said Phil Berry, vice president of ViaSat Command and Control Situational Awareness (C2SA). "We're working closely with the FBCB2 program team to ensure successful fielding of this network upgrade."

The ViaSat BFT-2 network offers situational awareness updates and increased data throughput. The next generation BFT-2 network is expected to improve situational awareness latency from minutes to just seconds.

The new BFT-2 system is derived from ViaSat mobile satellite communication technology, which enables fast, efficient network access using very small antennas. These systems provide communications-on-the-move (COTM) service to both military and commercial customers.