[Satellite TODAY Insider 11-14-11] The U.S. government now has an official Future Comsatcom Services Acquisition (FCSA) X-band contractor as operator Xtar was awarded a Schedule-70 Special Identification Number (SIN) for transponded services under the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) program, Xtar announced earlier this week.

   The award, which covers a period of five years and two five-year renewal options, gives Xtar’s government clientele an additional option for acquiring commercially available, high-speed X-band capacity to meet mission requirements for both bandwidth-only and value-added solutions through Xtar resellers. The transponder services SIN pertains to both short- and long-term satellite bandwidth leases.

   The multiple-award schedule and indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity FCSA, a joint venture established in August between the GSA and DISA was established in August 2010. The 10-year FCSA program combines the U.S. military’s ComSatCom acquisition vehicles DSTS-G with GSA’s SatCom2. Through FCSA, the government can acquire any part of or a fully managed end-to-end satellite services solution in any commercially available commercial satellite communications frequency band, including L-, S-, C-, X-, Ku-, extended Ku-, Ka- and UHF. FCSA is open to defense and civilian agencies as well as state, local and tribal governments, public schools and colleges, and public authorities.

   While the U.S. government has awarded several task orders for X-band to support military needs in the past, Xtar said the FCSA contract vehicle allows them to address the orders directly, which should lead to an increase in frequency of orders placed as demand for space segment increases. In a statement, Xtar President and COO Philip Harlow said the demand was being driven by applications requiring greater bandwidth, including Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (AISR).

   “Through this FCSA award, government users now have another contract vehicle to access Xtar’s high-power satellite resources. Xtar is pursuing various methods to make X-band capacity more available, both on a space segment-only basis as well as through its trusted, value-added resellers,” said Harlow.

    Xtar operates two X-band satellites. XTAR-EUR, located at 29 degrees East, entered service in April 2005 carrying 12 100W wideband X-band transponders. XTAR-LANT at 30 degrees West entered service in March 2006 with 8 transponders.