A key Senate panel wants the Defense Department to lay out its short, medium and long-term strategies for using an appropriate mix of military and commercial satellite bandwidth.
The Senate Armed S
ervices Committee (SASC) wants DoD to produce strategies in five-, 10- and 25-year timeframes. The committee said in its fiscal year 2014 defense authorization report that it believes considerable savings can be achieved by purchasing commercial bandwidth in larger block quantities.
SASC said DoD has been unable to define the appropriate mix between government-provided and commercially-purchased satellite communications (SATCOM) and has relied on more expensive spot market buys. Spot market buying costs more than long-term leases because they occur at the last minute when limited bandwidth resources are available.
Commercial satellite industry leaders have been frustrated by DoD’s spot market approach to acquiring SATCOM. Intelsat General CEO Kay Sears told Defense Daily in November DoD’s spot market buying stunts 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).
SASC also directs the defense secretary to consider the use of a capital working fund or other mechanisms for leasing or multi-year procurement of commercial bandwidth. The committee says these alternative procurement arrangements should only be used in instances where the use of DoD or other government satellites are not available or more costly than in the private sector.
The committee directs DoD to produce its report by Feb. 28 and for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the acquisition strategy of the report no more than 90 days after submission.