By: Brandon Knapp
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/YYJ6KSJI5FCUVLVEY7VWIEAOJU.jpg)
Leaders at the Defense Information Systems Agency desire to speed upward how the Army acquires satellite bandwidth. The contracting procedure across the Department of Defense is ofttimes notoriously slow. But lag times inwards getting satellite bandwidth tin get problems for soldiers on the front end lines, who rely on the technology scientific discipline to communicate on the battlefield. Speaking on a panel at the Association of the U.S.A. Army’s annual meeting, Mike Nichols, DISA’s primary of commercial satellite communications technical support, described an persuasion that would permit the way to larn bandwidth to the battlefield faster.
“If I remove heed i affair dorsum from our client community too leadership, it’s that nosotros require to larn faster,” Nichols said. “So that is a charter that nosotros remove maintain taken on, how tin nosotros amend the acquisition process.”
Nichols said DISA is exploring establishing a amount network, which would characteristic an on-demand capability too permit defence customers to speedily encounter their bandwidth demands.
“We would remove maintain a amount network that provides capacity too diverse bands,” Nichols said. “Customers remove maintain a need for service. We would already remove maintain a amount network inwards place, inwards diverse bands for diverse services that would essentially atomic number 82 to a really rapid mightiness to larn that bandwidth.”
DISA currently has 91 contracts too chore orders inwards house for commercial satellite communications.
The persuasion of a amount network isn’t a novel i at DISA, but therefore far no defence organizations remove maintain been willing to render the funds from their ain budget to constitute such a network. But Nichols said recent changes at the Pentagon may alter that calculation.
The National Defense Authorization Act for financial 2018 restructured satellite communication procurement efforts, moving satellite acquisition control from DISA to Air Force Space Command inwards Dec 2018.
“We experience this transition to Air Force Space Command volition live on conducive to that change,” Nichols said.
“If the subdivision is willing to stand upward up too then nosotros tin larn that preposition bandwidth inwards house inwards the areas that nosotros require it, too then when a client comes, we’ve got that inwards place.”
Nichols equally good noted during the panel that 2 contracting mechanisms inwards house at DISA remove maintain been remarkably successful inwards accelerating acquisition: contract surges too blanket buy agreements. Those agreements permit a unmarried vendor to remove maintain a unmarried management dashboard too streamlined approach for technical support.
“These remove maintain helped tremendously, but that’s non our halt state,” Nichols said.
Most chore orders tin already live on awarded yesteryear DISA inside 17 concern days, Nichols said, but the way sees room for improvement inside the “art of the possible.”
Buat lebih berguna, kongsi:
