State Department seeks small businesses for LEO satellite terminals

The State Department is looking for small businesses capable of providing low-earth orbit satellite terminals, airtime services and support equity for its global diplomatic communications network.

State's request for information posted Thursday is specifically asking for responses from HUBzone, woman-owned, service-disabled, veteran-owned and other types of small businesses. Responses are due June 22.

The contract will support the Remote Expeditionary Area Communications Hub program, or REACH. It provides contingency and crisis communications to U.S. embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions worldwide.

The potential contract will support off-grid operations across 277 overseas posts including emergency evacuations, election monitoring, remote consular operations and other activities.

State is looking for a prime that can supply LEO terminals and related hardware such as tripods, ruggedized kits, and transit cases. The company will also provide a unified account management portal and 24/7 global help desk.

The department expects the contract to have one-base year and up to four individual option years.

A draft statement of work released with the RFI describes requirements such as real-time system monitoring and outage reporting, tiered user access controls, supply chain risk management aligned with NIST SP 800-53, and Section 889 compliance.

Delivery requirements for any of the 277 posts are stringent: 15 days for standard deliver; seven days for accelerated delivery; and 48 hours for emergency delivery

The RFI asks respondents to identify their General Services Administration schedule contracts or other governmentwide acquisition contract vehicles, indicating that the department will likely award the work as a task order.