Artel takes on Central Command satellite services

Artel Inc. won a four-year, $12.5 million task order from the Defense Information Systems Agency to provide satellite services to the U.S. Central Command for Operation Iraqi Freedom, the company said yesterday.

The contract, which is for one year, worth $3.7 million and has three option years, was issued under DISA's Defense Information Systems Network Satellite Telecommunications Services-Global program. This contract vehicle lets the Defense Department, its authorized users and other federal agencies purchase global fixed-satellite service bandwidth and related satellite-based services and applications.

DISA awarded the original contract to Artel and two other prime contractors in February 2001.

Under the new task order, Artel will provide the Central Command with 224 megahertz of bandwidth from Intelsat's IS 706 spacecraft. Intelsat is a collection of communications satellites that provide international broadcast services.

Artel also will provide management and control support services from its network operations center in Chantilly, Va., including real-time monitoring and control over the daily physical and logical configuration of leased bandwidth, earth terminals and associated terrestrial interconnection resources.

Headquartered in Reston, Va., Artel provides managed network services, solutions integration, information assurance/homeland security services and e-government solutions to the public and private sectors. Among its federal clients are the Defense Department, intelligence and homeland security agencies and other civilian agencies. The company posted 2004 revenue of $118.6 million. It is No. 97 on Washington Technology's 2004 Top 100 List of federal prime contractors.