The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) and the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) announced Feb. 21 that the CS2-SB program would increase the government’s reliance on commercial satellite services to provide essential, secure communications to disaster recovery teams, emergency responders, distant learning services and the military.

   The FCSA program was created after GSA and DISA formed a satellite communications partnership in August 2009. CS2-SB is the first of two sets of indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts for customized end-to-end satellite services solutions. The first round award winners were AIS Engineering, By Light, Professional IT Services, Knight Sky Consulting and UltiSat.

   CS2-SB contract holders can compete for task orders that consist solely of satellite professional support services such as analysis and testing. CS2-SB and the future CS2 award, aim to provide access to customer defined end-to-end solutions that include satellite bandwidth, teleport access, network management and the equipment needed for satellite communications.

   The awards maintain a five-year contract period, or three base years with two, one-year options, and a $900 million ceiling. Awards for the companion CS2 full and open contracts for large-scale, end-to-end solutions are planned for later this quarter, said GSA Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Steven Kempf.

   “This phase of awards gives small businesses increased access to the federal marketplace while reducing government costs," said Kempf. “We continue to see the great benefits of combining DISA and GSA acquisition expertise and experience to deliver a lower cost option to federal agencies that need to purchase mission-critical satellite services.”