Space Force starts to craft satellite communications integration contract
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By
Ross Wilkers
The service branch gives industry an initial glimpse at its plan to hire a technical integrator for mission planning, resource management and other functions.
Space Force has begun to study the market landscape for informing its work on a new contract to hire a system integrator that can help the service branch operate an enterprise satellite communications management platform.
That platform supports functions such as satellite mission planning, satellite resource management, electromagnetic interference tracking, terminal and service provider management, and operational status monitoring.
Combatant commands also use the platform to obtain SATCOM capabilities that resize in a classified staging and production environment based on Microsoft Azure’s cloud offering, the service branch said in a Sept. 18 sources sought notice.
Space Force is planning to compete a potential five-year contract that will task a company with planning, executing and validating integrations between the platform and other government systems. These include the Joint Management Tool, Unified Data Library, EMS Beskar, Blitzar, and Protected and Tactical Systems Mission Management System.
Core application coding will not be in the scope of work for this integrator, which will also not be responsible for dictating enterprise reference architecture. Designated development contractors work on the core application code, while system engineering and integration contractors establish the architectural roadmap and governance.
Space Force describes the EM&C SI’s role as being a technical integrator and operational execution engine that drives program increment planning, deployment automation, release orchestration, and enterprise-level test and evaluation efforts.
The EM&C SI must be strictly independent of core software developers to comply with the emerging contract’s requirements for avoiding organizational conflicts of interest.
The contract will be competed via a commercial solutions opening on the Platform One Solutions Marketplace. Space Force is asking interested parties to submit a video to P1SM before the end of October.