The $35 million award contracts ViaSat to design a system that would provide voice and data military satcom covering a region from the west coast of Africa to the east coast of Australia.

    The ViaSat UHF network control system will include: architecture design; development; integration and test; site preparation; equipment procurement and installation; and technical support. ViaSat said the system would also be designed to include the Integrated Waveform (IW) for channel control and network terminals, which aims to enable an increase in channel efficiency and available bandwidth.

    The IS-22 satellite was launched in March with a hosted UHF payload, which dedicated about 30 percent of the satellite’s total capacity to ADF communications.