ViaSat Clinches $33M U.S. Government Contract For PTSFD

Global broadband services and technology company,ViaSat Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT) , secured acost-plus-incentive-fee contract for the Protected Tactical Service Field Demonstration (PTSFD) worth over $33 million.

The work on the contract will be executed at Carlsbad, CA, and is scheduled to be completed by Sep 30, 2020.

PTSFD will offer wideband anti-jam communications to tactical users across both government and commercial satellites. This program also involves developing a Protected Tactical Waveform (“PTW”) modem and an embedded cryptographic unit.

The Protected Tactical System capability will assist U.S. military forces to remain connected, informed and industrious, even in a blocked operational environment.

PTSFD will showcase the way Wideband Global Satellite Communications (SATCOM) constellation and commercial SATCOM can be used to offer wideband anti-jam communications to tactical users.

Through the program, the government will be able to take advantage of commercial off-the-shelf (“COTS”) systems with limited development and respond swiftly. Further, it will be able to leverage the commercial satellite fleet while providing superior protected communications. This will also facilitate better operational flexibility and provide access to considerably more bandwidth than possible with just the Advanced Extremely High Frequency constellation.

Thanks to ViaSat's established proficiency in satellite communications, advanced waveform development and cyber security, the U.S. government will now be able to take a low risk, highly innovative approach to PTSFD. ViaSat will, thus, help provide global, interoperable communications to deployed war fighters, with the most reliable, resilient and fastest satellite service accessible.

VIASAT INC Price and Consensus

ViaSat has been involved in securing classified information and protecting the U.S. government, military and defense missions for decades. Its Government Systems segment revenues have been growing steadily in recent times. In the company’s first-quarter fiscal 2017 results, ViaSat’s Government Systems segment reported record revenues of $145.2 million. In particular, strong performance in government satellite communications systems products and tactical data link products sales have been boosting the company’s government business.

The company projects robust growth opportunities in satellite services and government systems segments, which are expected to drive top-line growth in the coming quarters. These factors indicate brilliant growth prospects for the company in coming quarters.

ViaSat currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include QUALCOMM Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) , Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI) and Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFD) . All three stocks hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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