DataPath to build kits for battlefield satellites

DataPath Inc. won a $100 million contract from the Army to manufacture and integrate conversion kits that will enable battlefield satellite terminals to operate using the Wideband Global Satcom system.

Under the contract, DataPath will provide and install Ka band conversion kits on approximately 800 deployed DataPath satellite terminals and 18 satellite communications trucks. DataPath will also provide spare kits for the retrofitted terminals.

In addition, DataPath, of Duluth, Ga., will provide and install modem upgrades to hundreds of JNN/WIN-T satcom terminals.

The contract has one base year and three option years. It could be worth as much as $225 million, if all options are exercised.

The wideband system, with its first satellite launched in October 2007, increases the high-bandwidth communications capacity available to support U.S. military operations worldwide. The system adds Ka and X band capacity to supplement limited military X band and commercial Ku band.

The satellite communications terminals being converted were designed and built by DataPath and deployed by the Army for the Joint Network Node/Warfighter Information Network-Tactical program.

Program Manager WIN-T's Commercial SATCOM Terminal Program at the Army Communications-Electronics Command in Fort Monmouth, N.J., awarded the delivery order through the Worldwide Satellite Systems contract.