Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) has announced that it was awarded a $1.5 million study contract by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center's MILSATCOM Systems Directorate to evaluate options available to meet future war fighting communications needs.

SS/L will study how commercial technologies and best practices can fulfill military communications mission needs cost effectively while exceeding mission assurance requirements.

"Our goal is to make sure that our war fighters have state-of-the-art communications capabilities when and where they are needed and at a reasonable cost to the taxpayer," said Al Tadros, Vice President of Civil and DoD Business at Space Systems/Loral.

"Commercial satellite production routinely provides high data rate multimedia services to fixed and mobile users on fast schedules, with economy of scale pricing, and exceptional reliability. The study results will further enable SMC to take advantage of these benefits on future MILSATCOM programs."

In 2010 the on-orbit fleet of approximately 60 SS/L-built geostationary satellites delivered better than 99.999 percent availability to its demanding commercial customers whose business cases depend on satellite reliability.

The U.S. Air Force can also benefit from SS/L's experience building two of the world's highest capacity broadband satellites, each of which offers more than 100 gigabits per second throughput.

The Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center stated that the goal of the study is to assess the application of innovative and feasible commercial-like acquisition approaches to enhance affordability, reduce delivery time, and expand the space industrial base.