The Space Force plans to award as many as four contracts for its Protected Tactical Satellite Communications-Global effort, according to the program's request for proposals posted online yesterday.
The contracts would create a pool of vendors with indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts for PTS-G, according to the notice, and the service would award the first design and demonstration delivery order.
PTS-G would create a proliferated network of communications satellites in geostationary orbit, the service has said, and would use “commercial solutions for inexpensive, quick-to-launch small GEO communications satellites” to provide assured warfighter communications.
The service requested $248 million to fund the new-start program in fiscal year 2025 for PTS-G, according to justification documents released with the request in March. That budget has not yet been passed by Congress.
PTS-G would fill the gap between the focused PTS-Resilient capabilities and the more broad but less assured capabilities from MILSATCOM and commercial services, a gap which the Space Warfighting Analysis Center called out. It would also increase global capacity for SATCOM.