In November of 2020, the Air Force selected SES Space and Defense to provide the satellite services necessary to power the Advanced Battle Management System(ABMS). According to Jim Hooper, the Chief Commercial Officer and a Corporate Vice President at SES Space and Defense, the ABMS is, “…a new program…designed to address a long-standing and enduring requirement – delivering advanced and interoperable battle management and C2 capabilities to the U.S. military.”
The ABMS program is revolutionary and has the potential to deliver new command, control, situational awareness, and intelligence capabilities to the battlefield. And the incredible bandwidth requirements of connecting the immense ecosystem of sensors and devices on the battlefield makes a multi-orbit satellite service – like the one operated by SES – essential for the system.
So the selection of SES Space and Defense satellite services to power the ABMS really isn’t that surprising.
What is surprising? The contract that was signed between SES Space and Defense and the Air Force – an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract that allows SES Space and Defense to compete for individual task orders that together have a ceiling value of $950 million.
According to Jon Bennett, the VP of Government Affairs, Marketing and Corporate Communications at SES Space and Defense, the IDIQ contract that was awarded to SES Space and Defense for the acquisition of MEO and GEO satellite services is not only something completely new in the world of military satellite acquisition, it could also indicate an ongoing and radical shift in the military’s relationship with satellite providers.
We recently caught up with Jon to record a new episode of the Government Satellite Report Podcast. During our discussion, we asked about why this IDIQ contract is so special, what it means for the future of satellite acquisition in the military and why it’s an encouraging sign for satellite providers.
Click the PLAY button below to listen to the podcast:
For additional information on SES’s work toward supporting ABMS CLICK HERE!