Peraton has secured a USD 218.6 million contract to procure commercial satellite communications services for United States Africa Command (AFRICOM). The deal comes after it legally petitioned the Government Accountability Office(GAO) on the contract formerly awarded to Inmarsat in June 2019.

The United States Africa Command is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Armed Forces, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. It is responsible for U.S. military operations, including fighting regional conflicts and maintaining military relations with 53 African nations.

According to press document released yesterday by Peraton,  the agreement was issued by the U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) in coordination with the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), who on GAO’s recommendation retracted the contract from it former awardee. DISA later issue a new call for proposals, in which Peraton won.

The contract, CTC0307,  is the first of it kind to be issued by the command under the Future Commercial SATCOM Acquisition (FCSA) program, and according to its details, allows Peraton to “provide mission partners, operating in the AFRICOM area of responsibility, with rapid acquisition of commercial satellite services to meet enduring and emerging requirements”, including  Ku-band connectivity to the command, resident in Stuttgart, Germany, by leveraging Satcom capacities from different satellite fleet operators. The contract is timelined for five years.

Also, “the services will be supported by Peraton’s 24×7 Network Operations Center (NOC), and by a dedicated team of satellite service engineers and professionals”, the document quotes.

Noteworthily, Peraton has been a consultative partner to AFRICOM for over a decade, providing services that include designing and executing comprehensive end-to-end controlled satellite solutions for an extensive spectrum of applications, including tactical ground deployments, airborne ISR connectivity, and multi-domain concentrated communications.

Peraton also supports the command under other FCSA task orders and through separate contract vehicles and industry partners.

About Peraton

Peraton is an innovative solutions provider for the most sensitive and critical programs in government, developed and executed by scientists, engineers, and other experts. Its wide range of services covers satellite and terrestrial communication, network optimisation, and managed security services.

Peraton also offers digital forensics, threat and vulnerability assessments, and security operations centres, while serving cyber, defence, homeland security, space, intelligence, and communications markets worldwide.

Describing the company in a statement,  David Myers, President of Peraton’s communications sector, said Peraton, as an independent service integrator, takes a neutral, vendor-agnostic approach to leverage the best technologies available from across the entire commercial satellite industry.