Artel named first satellite vendor under new $5 billion contract

The General Services Administration and the Defense Information Services Agency have named Artel Inc. as their first vendor to offer satellite services under their joint $5 billion, 10-year Future Commercial Satellite Services Acquisition vehicles.

The General Services Administration and the Defense Information Services Agency have named Artel Inc., as their first vendor to offer satellite services under their joint $5 billion, 10-year Future Commercial Satellite Services Acquisition vehicles.

“We have reached a milestone and have awarded the first contract on Schedule 70, at the end of August, to Artel, of Reston, Va.,” said Kevin Gallo, GSA’s SatCom services program manager. “This is of special interest to the Defense Department, but we expect this will be an award of interest to other agencies as well.”

The award will allow the company to compete for task orders governmentwide.

Artel is a SatCom services contract-holder under DISA’s Defense Information System Network Satellite Transmission Service-Global.

The FCSA contract combines DOD’s soon-to-expire ComSatCom acquisition vehicles DSTS-G and Inmarsat, as well as GSA’s SatCom II.

Artel, of Reston, Va., ranks No. 73 on Washington Technology’s 2010 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.