WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army awarded Comtech Telecommunications a $48.6 million contract to develop a satellite modem that may hook up with multiple networks, the corporate announced Oct. 3.
Comtech, based in Melville, Recent York, is a provider of satellite and terrestrial communications equipment and services.
The corporate will design what the Army calls an EDIM modem, short for Enterprise Digital Intermediate Frequency Multi-Carrier.
Satellite communications modems are devices used to transmit and receive signals to and from a satellite. The EDIM modems are required to support multiple satellite providers, a key feature sought by the U.S. military so it could actually access services that operate in several orbits and frequencies.
The brand new equipment will replace existing EBEM modems (Enhanced Bandwidth Efficient Modem) at U.S. military installations that Viasat has supplied since 2014.
The EDIM modems enable “digitized, hybrid satellite network architectures,” said Ken Peterman, president and CEO of Comtech. Military network users will have the opportunity to roam across different carriers so that they can have a more resilient communications infrastructure, he said.
The satellite terminals equipped with EDIM modems also may be integrated with terrestrial communications systems, said Peterman.
The modem shall be designed to support satcom systems across the Army and the opposite military services, he said. “Government and industrial customers are increasingly demanding flexible ground architecture that supports quite a lot of orbits, constellations, and waveforms.”
Quantities, schedule TBD
The Army organization that oversees this project is the Program Executive Office Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS).
It has yet to be determined what number of units Comtech will produce and when the brand new equipment shall be introduced, said Peterman.
“The fielding quantities, delivery schedules, and contract vehicles for EDIM modems shall be determined by the Army and other services,” he said. “There are tens of 1000’s of EBEM modems fielded today that we expect to see replaced.”
“EDIM is contemplated as a largely drop-in substitute for existing modems installed in fixed sites, including U.S. Army regional hub nodes and Defense Information Systems Agency facilities,” Peterman said.
Each organization that currently uses EBEM models will choose the timing of the upgrade to the brand new modem at fixed sites over the approaching years, he said.
The Army also has plans to switch aging EBEM modems utilized in tactical systems for forward-deployed satcom infrastructure, said Peterman. ‘We anticipate they are going to lean heavily on similar capabilities to those being developed under the EDIM contract.”