Page 1 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

September 27, 2005 

The Honorable John Warner 

Chairman 

The Honorable Carl Levin 

Ranking Minority Member 

Committee on Armed Services 

United States Senate 

Subject: Briefing on DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications 

 Satellite Services Procurement Process

The Department of Defense (DOD) submitted to the Congress on July 29, 

2005 a report entitled Defense Commercial Communications Satellite 

Services Procurement Process.1

 In response to direction from your 

committee,2

 we reviewed DOD’s report to determine the extent to which it 

addressed the seven recommendations contained in our December 2003 

report3

 on how DOD procures fixed commercial satellite bandwidth 

services.4

 On September 2, 2005, we briefed the Committee on the results 

of our review. This letter summarizes and transmits that briefing. The full 

briefing, including our scope and methodology, is reprinted as appendix I. 

We conducted our review during August 2005 in accordance with generally 

accepted government auditing standards. 

DOD has for many years augmented its internally owned and operated 

satellite communications capability by leasing commercial fixed satellite 

services. Demand has been increasing in recent years, as the military has 

come to rely more heavily on commercial satellite communications to plan 

and support operations and as DOD moves toward a network-centric 

 1

DOD prepared the report in response to section 803 of the Ronald W. Reagan National 

Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005, Pub. L. No. 108-375, October 28, 2004. 

2

Senate Report No. 109-69, May 17, 2005. 

3

GAO, Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach Needed for DOD’s Procurement of 

Commercial Satellite Bandwidth, GAO-04-206 (Washington, D.C.: Dec 10, 2003). 

4

Bandwidth is the range of frequencies that can pass over a given transmission channel. 

Fixed satellite service refers to a radio communication service between fixed earth stations 

at specific locations by means of one or more satellites. 

United States Government Accountability Office

Washington, DC 20548 

Background 
Page 2 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

warfare environment. In our 2003 review, we found that although DOD 

was the largest single consumer of such services, it acquired its bandwidth 

on an as-needed basis, thereby missing significant opportunities to 

leverage its buying power to achieve considerable savings and more 

favorable terms and conditions. Additionally, DOD did not know exactly 

how much it was spending on commercial satellite services, nor did it 

know much about its service providers or whether customer needs were 

being satisfied. As a result, we made seven recommendations for 

developing a strategic management framework and improving the 

acquisition of fixed commercial satellite services. In commenting on a 

draft of the report in December 2003, DOD generally concurred with our 

recommendations. Section 803 required DOD to review potential 

procurement mechanisms and develop guidance to its buying agencies 

that addresses our seven recommendations. 

Our analysis of DOD’s report indicates that DOD either fully or partially 

addressed the seven recommendations from our December 2003 report. As 

indicated in table 1, DOD fully addressed our recommendation on the need 

to inventory users to determine existing and long-term requirements and 

our recommendation on improving the current funding structure. 

However, DOD did not address all elements of the remaining five 

recommendations, so they are identified as partially addressed. 

Summary 
Page 3 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

Table 1: Summary of GAO’s Assessment on Whether DOD Addressed GAO’s Recommendations 

Recommendation Extent addressed 

1. Inventory current and potential users of commercial bandwidth to determine existing and long term 

 requirements. 

Fully addressed 

2. Identify and exploit consolidation opportunities for bandwidth requirements of combatant 

 commanders, military services, and defense agencies 

Partially addressed 

3. Adopt, when appropriate, commonly used commercial practices, such as conducting spend 

 analyses and negotiating pricing discounts based on overall DOD volume, to strengthen DOD’s 

 position in acquiring bandwidth. 

Partially addressed 

4. Improve the current funding structure by considering new funding approaches, such as centralized 

 funding of commercial bandwidth and seeking legislative authority for multiyear procurements. 

Fully addressed 

5. Develop performance metrics to assess user satisfaction with the timeliness, flexibility, quality, and 

 cost in acquiring commercial satellite services. 

Partially addressed 

6. Strengthen DOD’s capacity to provide accurate and complete analyses of commercial bandwidth 

 requirements, spending, and the capabilities of commercial satellite providers by enhancing core 

 internal technical expertise and information systems. 

Partially addressed 

7. Assess, and implement as needed, changes to the key elements of the existing acquisition process— 

 including requirements generation, solution development and evaluation, and contract vehicles—to 

 facilitate a more strategic approach. 

Partially addressed 

Source: GAO analysis 

We provided a draft of this letter and the attached briefing to DOD for 

comment. DOD indicated by email that it had no substantive issues with 

the documents and would not be submitting any official comments. 

We are sending copies of this report to other interested congressional 

committees and Members, and to the Secretary of Defense. We will make 

copies available to others upon request. In addition, the report will be 

available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://www.gao.gov. 

If you or your staff have any questions regarding this letter, please contact 

me at (202) 512-4841 or woodsw@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices 

of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last 

Agency Comments 
Page 4 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

page of the letter. GAO staff who made contributions to this letter were 

John Needham, Assistant Director; Gary Delaney; John Heere; and Jose 

Ramos. 

William T. Woods, Director 

Acquisition and Sourcing Management 
Page 5 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

Briefing Slides 

Observations on the Department of 

Defense’s Commercial Communications 

Satellite 

Services Report

September 2, 2005

Briefing to Staff of the 

Senate Armed Services Committee
Page 6 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

1

Briefing Outline

• Introduction

• Objective, Scope, and Methodology

• Results

• Background

• Observations on DOD’s Responses

• Appendix: DOD Commercial Satellite Communication 

Attributes
Page 7 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

2

Introduction

• For many years, DOD has leased commercial fixed satellite services to augment 

its internally owned and operated satellite communications capability.

• Our December 2003 report--Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach 

Needed for DOD's Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth--

recommended that DOD develop and implement a strategic management 

framework for improving the approach for acquiring commercial satellite 

services, along with correcting specific oversight and management weaknesses. 

• Section 803 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for 

Fiscal Year 2005 required DOD to

• review all potential mechanisms for procuring commercial communications 

satellite services and provide guidance to the Director of the Defense 

Information Systems Agency and the Secretaries of the military 

departments on how such procurements should be conducted. 

• submit a report to Congress that included a discussion of the rationale for 

the guidance developed and how the guidance addresses the 

recommendations made in GAO’s December 2003 report.

• The committee directed GAO to review DOD’s report to the Congress to 

determine the extent the report addressed our recommendations.1

1Senate Report 109-69, (accompanying S.1042, National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006).
Page 8 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

3

Objective, Scope, and 

Methodology

To accomplish our objective:

• We analyzed DOD’s report against the elements in each of the recommendations 

contained in our December 2003 report to determine the extent to which DOD 

addressed the recommendations. If DOD addressed all elements in a recommendation 

we determined that it was fully addressed; if DOD did not address all elements we 

determined that it was partially addressed. 

• We analyzed DOD’s December 2004 commercial satellite policy memorandum and 

action plan to understand the context for DOD’s new approach for acquiring commercial 

satellite communication services.

• We analyzed the supporting cost-benefit analysis to determine extent of the options 

DOD considered in its analysis for acquiring fixed satellite services. We did not validate 

the results of the cost-benefit analysis.

Our objective was to determine the extent that DOD’s report - Defense Commercial 

Communications Satellite Services Procurement Process - addressed the recommendations 

contained in our December 2003 report Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach 

Needed for DOD's Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth (GAO-04-206). 
Page 9 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

4

Objective, Scope, and 

Methodology

• We analyzed the Commercial Satellite Communications Services Requirements 

Synopsis and interviewed DOD and Joint Staff officials to discuss the process used 

in developing the user requirements. 

• We interviewed officials from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for 

Networks and Information Integration and the Defense Information Systems Agency 

(DISA) to ascertain their plans for implementing the recommendations contained in 

the DOD report.

• Our analysis does not address whether DOD’s report fully complies with all requirements of Section 803 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense 

Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005.

We conducted our work at the Wireless Directorate of the Office of the Assistant Secretary 

of Defense for Networks and Information Integration, Washington, D.C., and the Defense 

Information Systems Agency, Falls Church, Virginia, in August 2005 in accordance with 

generally accepted government auditing standards.
Page 10 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

5

RESULTS

DOD’s report: 

• fully addressed two of the seven recommendations in 

GAO’s report,

• partially addressed five of the seven recommendations
Page 11 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

6

Background

• In our 2003 report we found that

• DOD was the largest consumer of commercial fixed satellite services.

• DOD was buying its satellite services on an as-needed basis, thereby missing 

significant opportunities to leverage its buying power and to achieve considerable 

savings as a result.

• Some users viewed the process for acquiring commercial fixed satellite services as 

being too lengthy, particularly for time-critical military operations, and they believed 

that the cost was too high.

• DOD did not know exactly how much it was spending on commercial satellite 

services, nor did it know much about its service providers or whether customer needs 

were really being satisfied.

• Neither DOD or DISA was collecting forecasts of users’ needs for commercial fixed 

satellite services, which is an important step toward optimizing DOD’s spending.

• GAO’s recommendations to DOD focused on the need to develop and implement a 

strategic approach to acquire commercial satellite services, along with correcting 

specific oversight and management weaknesses. 
Page 12 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

7

Background

Congress directed DOD, in Section 803, to include the following procurement 

mechanisms in its review:

1. procurement under indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts of other departments and agencies of the Federal Government, including the Federal 

Technology Service of the General Services Administration. 

2. procurement directly from commercial sources that are qualified as described in subsection (b) of Section 803, using full and open competition (as defined in section 

4(6) of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (41 U.S.C. 403(6)).

3. procurement by any other means that has been used by the Director of the Defense Information Systems Agency or the Secretary of a military department to 

enter into a contract for the procurement of commercial communications satellite 

services that is in force on the date of the enactment of this Act, including through 

commercial communications satellite service integrators and resellers. 

4. procurement under the method used as of the date of the enactment of this Act, modified with streamlined processes to ensure increased efficiency and cost 

effectiveness.

Congress required DOD to submit a report that included the rationale for any guidance it 

developed and a discussion of how the guidance will address GAO’s recommendations.
Page 13 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

8

Background

Actions taken by DOD:

• Issued in December 2004 a policy memorandum for the planning, acquisition, and 

management of commercial satellite communications fixed satellite services.

• Prior studies from GAO’s December 2003 report, the Joint Staff and others 

identified opportunities for improvements

• Published action plan for implementing new policy.

• Defined baseline requirements for commercial satellite communication services.

• Completed cost-benefit analysis. 

• Submitted report to Congress on July 29, 2005.
Page 14 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

9

Background

DOD’s Report to Congress:

• Defined how DOD was planning to implement a more strategic approach for 

the planning, acquisition, and management of commercial fixed satellite 

services. 

• Included, in developing its new strategic approach for commercial fixed 

satellite services, the following four overarching elements: 

1. integrated planning; 

2. cost-effective acquisition and effective provisioning; 

3. integrated management of commercial and military operations; and

4. alignment of commercial and military satellites and earth equipment.

• Reported that DOD reviewed potential mechanisms for future procurement of 

commercial satellite services, including the four options that Congress 

specified in Section 803 of the fiscal year 2005 defense authorization act, and 

concluded that two options (full and open competition and improved version of 

current contract) were viable. 

• Discussed the recommendations made in our December 2003 report.
Page 15 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

10

Background

• Advised Congress of its intent to proceed with the following two-phased approach for 

procurement of commercial fixed satellite services:

1. improve the effectiveness of the current process by incorporating changes to the 

DISA requirements and provisioning processes to improve responsiveness and 

aggregate bandwidth to reduce costs; and

2. examine how best to craft a successor contract by obtaining input from the satellite 

industry, including small business, with potential issuance of a request for proposal 

for a new competitive procurement intended to meet the full range of warfighter 

requirements and enable cost savings through bandwidth aggregation and lessons 

learned.
Page 16 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

Summary1

Partially

Addressed

7. Assess, and implement as needed, changes to the key elements of the existing 

acquisition process—including requirements generation, solution development and 

evaluation, and contract vehicles—to facilitate a more strategic approach

Partially

Addressed

6. Strengthen DOD’s capacity to provide accurate and complete analyses of 

commercial bandwidth requirements, spending, and the capabilities of commercial 

satellite providers by enhancing core internal technical expertise and information 

systems. 

Partially

Addressed

5. Develop performance metrics to assess user satisfaction with the timeliness, 

flexibility, quality, and cost in acquiring commercial satellite services.

Fully 

addressed

4. Improving the current funding structure by considering new funding approaches, 

such as centralized funding of commercial bandwidth, and seeking legislative 

authority for multiyear procurements. 

Partially

addressed 

3. Adopting, when appropriate, commonly used commercial practices, such as 

conducting spend analyses and negotiating pricing discounts based on overall DOD 

volume, to strengthen DOD's position in acquiring bandwidth. 

Partially

addressed

2. Identify and exploit consolidation opportunities for bandwidth requirements of 

combatant commanders, military services, and defense agencies. 

Fully

Addressed

1. Inventory current and potential users of commercial bandwidth to determine 

existing and long-term requirements.

Extent 

addressed GAO recommendations

1

GAO, Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach Needed for DOD’s Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth, GAO-04-20 

(Washington, D.C.: Dec 10, 2003). 

11
Page 17 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

12

First Recommendation1

DOD’s reported actions

• Instituted a three-layer planning approach that defines long-term 

requirements, preposition capacity 

requirements for intermittent users, 

and surge requirements for crises. 

• The Joint Staff has revised the current 

satellite communications requirements 

determination process, as it relates to 

Commercial Satellite Communications 

(SATCOM) fixed satellite services, to 

align with the three-layered approach. 

• The Joint Staff will annually revalidate warfighter satellite communications 

requirements. This requires combatant 

commanders and the military services 

to review all requirements entered into 

the Satellite Data Base for currency, 

changes and revalidation. 

GAO Observations

• DOD’s reported actions fully address the recommendation. The three-layer planning 

approach coupled with the changes to the 

determination process and the annual 

revalidation of requirements should allow 

DOD to determine existing and long-term 

commercial satellite communications 

requirements.

• To establish an overall set of requirements DOD identified the warfighter’s 

requirements by defining eight "attributes 

desired by the warfighter“. These attributes 

are the criteria for assessing 10 options for 

acquiring commercial satellite 

communications as well for establishing 

and updating the three layers of 

requirements on an annual basis. 

First GAO Recommendation:

Inventory current and potential users of commercial bandwidth to determine existing 

and long term requirements.

1

GAO, Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach Needed for DOD’s Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth, GAO-04-206

(Washington, D.C.: Dec 10, 2003). 
Page 18 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

13

DOD’s reported actions

• DISA is evaluating the current commercial SATCOM leases to determine how to 

best aggregate bandwidth requirements. 

• Analysis of the expiration dates of a number of current leases, when combined 

with knowledge of the mission supported 

in a particular area of responsibility could 

provide information about aggregating for 

future leases. 

• This analysis will be performed against all current on-contract leases to determine 

future bandwidth aggregation 

opportunities. 

GAO observations

• DOD’s actions partially address the recommendation. 

• DOD analyses of current SATCOM leases indicate potential savings when 

requirements are consolidated.

• DOD has taken steps to identify current requirements and has estimated future 

requirements for funding purposes. 

• DOD’s report, however, does not specify how future consolidation opportunities are 

to be exploited; for example, it does not 

describe the mechanism for translating 

newly categorized requirements into lower 

prices and favorable contract terms. 

Second GAO Recommendation:

Identify and exploit consolidation opportunities for bandwidth requirements of 

combatant 

commanders, military services, and defense agencies. 

Second Recommendation1

1

GAO, Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach Needed for DOD’s Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth, GAO-04-206 

(Washington, D.C.: Dec 10, 2003). 
Page 19 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

14

DOD’s reported actions 

• DISA tasked to conduct a 

cost/benefit analysis and to 

develop a comprehensive 

acquisition strategy to restructure 

the contracting method for 

commercial SATCOM.

• The commercial SATCOM policy directed users to include funds in 

their program objective 

memorandums consistent with the 

layered approach to 

communications requirements and 

their satellite database entries, and 

to be able to report on the total 

amount of funds budgeted. 

GAO observations

• DOD actions partially address the recommendation by incorporating 

commercial practices into its requirements 

document.

• The cost/benefit analysis included commonly used commercial practices in the 

10 procurement options evaluated as 

appropriate. However, a comprehensive 

acquisition strategy has not been finalized.

• DOD as part of its cost/benefit analysis has included some of the elements of a spend 

analysis. However, greater benefits could 

be obtained by doing a thorough spend 

analysis of awarded procurements and then 

using those results to exploit opportunities 

to leverage DOD’s buying power in the 

future.

Third GAO Recommendation:

Adopting, when appropriate, commonly used commercial practices, such as conducting 

spend analyses and negotiating pricing discounts based on overall DOD volume, to 

strengthen DOD's position in acquiring bandwidth. 

Third Recommendation1

1

GAO, Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach Needed for DOD’s Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth, GAO-04-206 

(Washington, D.C.: Dec 10, 2003). 
Page 20 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

15

DOD’s reported actions

• Cost/benefit analysis evaluated contracting and commercial SATCOM 

bandwidth funding strategies used by 

other U.S. government organizations.

• Looked at multiyear contracts and found that multiyear contracts were only used 

in cases where the organization had 

funded the contract using funds 

appropriated specifically for these 

contracts. Only 10 percent of DOD 

funding fits this model. DOD plans to 

contract for bandwidth to support 

multiple year requirements using a Base 

year and negotiated option year contract 

structure. 

• DOD concluded that that centralized 

funding of commercial bandwidth does 

not provide significant benefit over the 

current approach.

GAO observations

• DOD’s report fully addresses the recommendation. Alternative funding 

strategies for acquiring commercial 

SATCOM services are evaluated. 

• DOD considered centralized funding and multiyear procurement but decided to 

retain the current funding structure.

• DOD did improve the funding process to ensure that the military departments and 

defense agencies include funding for 

commercial SATCOM in developing their 

program proposals, known as the 

program objective memorandum.

Fourth GAO Recommendation:

Improving the current funding structure by considering new funding approaches, such as 

centralized funding of commercial bandwidth, and seeking legislative authority for 

multiyear procurements. 

Fourth Recommendation1

1

GAO, Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach Needed for DOD’s Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth, GAO-04-206 

(Washington, D.C.: Dec 10, 2003).
Page 21 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

16

Fifth Recommendation1

DOD’s reported actions

• Policy memorandum and action plan 

directed DISA to develop performance 

metrics to assess user satisfaction. 

• DISA will actively seek customer 

feedback through customer surveys to 

determine how well the process is 

working to satisfy their needs, and use 

the information to iterate process 

improvement activities. 

Fifth GAO Recommendation:

Develop performance metrics to assess user satisfaction with the timeliness, flexibility, quality, and cost in acquiring commercial satellite services.

GAO observations

• DOD has partially addressed the 

recommendation by developing metrics 

and a customer survey on service quality. 

However, DOD has not yet developed 

performance metrics on timeliness, 

flexibility, or cost. DOD plans to do so 

after validating the eight warfighter 

attributes. 

• On timeliness, DOD is tracking the 

elapsed times from a request for service 

to when a task order is awarded. 

However, there are no standards, as of 

now, for assessing timeliness. 

1

GAO, Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach Needed for DOD’s Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth, GAO-04-206 

(Washington, D.C.: Dec 10, 2003). 
Page 22 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

17

Sixth Recommendation1

DOD’s reported actions

• Revised process for defining user requirements to ensure accurate 

information on potential commercial 

bandwidth requirements. Plans to 

conduct annual reviews of planned 

versus actual bandwidth usage.

• Spending assessments to be enabled through budget process 

and acquisition strategy. 

• DOD plans to institute a regular forum with industry to exchange 

information regarding DOD 

requirements, commercial system 

capabilities, and future technology 

needs and plans. 

Sixth GAO Recommendation:

Strengthen DOD’s capacity to provide accurate and complete analyses of commercial 

bandwidth requirements, spending, and the capabilities of commercial satellite providers 

by enhancing core internal technical expertise and information systems. 

GAO observations

• DOD has partially addressed the recommendation. The revised SATCOM 

requirements determination process 

requires users to stratify requirements.

• DOD is modernizing the satellite database to allow better requirements 

analyses.

• DOD’s report does not state how the budget process and acquisition strategy 

will yield better spending analyses.

• DOD’s report does not state how internal expertise will be enhanced. 

• DOD is collecting information from industry on its capabilities. Plans for an 

initial industry forum are in place. 

1

GAO, Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach Needed for DOD’s Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth, GAO-04-206 

(Washington, D.C.: Dec 10, 2003). 
Page 23 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite 

18

Seventh Recommendation1

DOD’s reported actions

• Policy memorandum/action plan outlines changes to acquisition and provisioning 

approach to obtain favorable terms and 

conditions and improve timely services.

• Planned improvements for provisioning, to include parallel provisioning activities, 

automated workforce management, userfriendly forms and input methods, and costfocused and speedy action.

• Cost-benefit analysis considered 10 alternative acquisition options and DOD’s 

report announced a two-phased acquisition 

approach. 

• Assessment of warfighter needs included 

notional responsiveness timelines.

GAO observations

• DOD partially addresses the recommendation by completing the assessment part and proceeding with 

a two-phased implementation. 

• Analysis of the 10 acquisition options used the eight attributes, as appropriate, desired by the warfighter 

for assessing the benefits of each option. Success 

of the option selected, however, will depend on 

realization of planned process improvements.

• A policy memorandum and action plan issued in December 2004 cover requirements planning, 

provisioning and acquisition, operations 

management, and alignment with military satellite 

programs. 

• Implementation of planned improvements in the provisioning process should resolve many previous 

user complaints. Phase II acquisition strategy still 

needed.

Seventh GAO Recommendation:

Assess, and implement as needed, changes to the key elements of the existing acquisition 

process—including requirements generation, solution development and evaluation, and contract 

vehicles—to facilitate a more strategic approach

1

GAO, Satellite Communications: Strategic Approach Needed for DOD’s Procurement of Commercial Satellite Bandwidth, GAO-04-206 

(Washington, D.C.: Dec 10, 2003). 
Page 24 GAO-05-1019R DOD’s Report on Commercial Communications Satellite (120466) 

19

Appendix

Timeline to activate critical circuit needs, single point of contact, streamlined provisioning, support Responsiveness operational planning

Portability Portability of bandwidth to different geographic regions

Covertness, methods to protect sensitive information, number of organizations and staff that have OPSEC access to critical information, etc.

Areas include terrestrial physical security; cyber security; radio frequency interference incident Protection management; personnel security; and operations management

Capacity Specific capacities to meet the respective commercial SATCOM service type

"Re-grooming" space segment and earth terminal /teleport resources for spectral and price 

efficiencies

Flexibility, 

Optimization

Global situational awareness, circuit and equipment status and resolution management, radio 

frequency interference resolution management, operational configuration management, NetOps 

tools integration, information assurance, military satellite communications process integration, 

performance management, trend analysis

NetOps

World-wide commercial FSS services including C-band, Ku-band, commercial Ka-band and 

commercial X-band from 70o N to 70o Coverage S

Capability Summary description

DOD Commercial Satellite Communication Attributes
The Government Accountability Office, the audit, evaluation and 

investigative arm of Congress, exists to support Congress in meeting its 

constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and 

accountability of the federal government for the American people. GAO 

examines the use of public funds; evaluates federal programs and policies; 

and provides analyses, recommendations, and other assistance to help 

Congress make informed oversight, policy, and funding decisions. GAO’s 

commitment to good government is reflected in its core values of 

accountability, integrity, and reliability. 

The fastest and easiest way to obtain copies of GAO documents at no cost 

is through GAO’s Web site (www.gao.gov). Each weekday, GAO posts 

newly released reports, testimony, and correspondence on its Web site. To 

have GAO e-mail you a list of newly posted products every afternoon, go 

to www.gao.gov and select “Subscribe to Updates.” 

The first copy of each printed report is free. Additional copies are $2 each. 

A check or money order should be made out to the Superintendent of 

Documents. GAO also accepts VISA and Mastercard. Orders for 100 or 

more copies mailed to a single address are discounted 25 percent. Orders 

should be sent to: 

U.S. Government Accountability Office 

441 G Street NW, Room LM 

Washington, D.C. 20548 

To order by Phone: Voice: (202) 512-6000 

TDD: (202) 512-2537 

Fax: (202) 512-6061 

Contact: 

Web site: www.gao.gov/fraudnet/fraudnet.htm 

E-mail: fraudnet@gao.gov

Automated answering system: (800) 424-5454 or (202) 512-7470 

Gloria Jarmon, Managing Director, JarmonG@gao.gov (202) 512-4400 

U.S. Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7125 

Washington, D.C. 20548 

Paul Anderson, Managing Director, AndersonP1@gao.gov (202) 512-4800 

U.S. Government Accountability Office, 441 G Street NW, Room 7149 

Washington, D.C. 20548 

GAO’s Mission 

Obtaining Copies of 

GAO Reports and 

Testimony 

Order by Mail or Phone 

To Report Fraud, 

Waste, and Abuse in 

Federal Programs 

Congressional 

Relations 

Public Affairs 

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER