Darwin McDaniel
Iridium Communications received a four-and-a-half-year, $54M contract from the Defense Information Systems Agency to continue to provide maintenance and support services for the Department of Defense's Enhanced Mobile Satellite Service gateway.
The company said Monday it will help manage the EMSS ground infrastructure that serves as the satellite uplink and downlink for DoD communications via an updated satellite network.
Scott Scheimreif, executive vice president of government programs at Iridium, said the new Gateway Maintenance and Support Service contract offers the company a mechanism "to help ensure the DoD gateway is able to fully support the new capabilities and services needed to meet the emerging requirements of the warfighter."
DISA awarded in October 2013 the previous iteration of the GMSS contract with a five-year base period, followed by a six-month option period.
The agency saw the number of subscribers to Iridium's EMSS program more than double to 113K over the past five years, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 17.25 percent.
Iridium attributed the increase to a demand for voice and data services among U.S. military and other government clients.
