Intelsat General has announced a new contract to provide satellite connectivity to RiteNet Corp. to support testing by the U.S. Army at Ft. Bliss in El, Paso, TX, and at the nearby White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The Army conducts a range of testing using the Warfighter Information Network (WIN-T) at these two facilities, including two Network Integration Evaluation (NIE) events each year to evaluate new technologies.

Using Ku-band capacity on an Intelsat satellite, RiteNet will provide both ongoing and surge capacity for the network. RiteNet, based in Rockville, MD, provides information technology and telecommunications services to a number of government and commercial customers.

"The Warfighter Information Network is the U.S. Army's backbone in terms of communications with its troops in the field," said Skot Butler, President of Intelsat General Corporation. "Our services will support the Army as it tests new equipment and technologies that will one day provide American warfighters around the globe with advanced capabilities."

This Comsatcom Transponded Capacity (CTC) task order is awarded by the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency-Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DISA-DITCO) for one year, with options to renew it annually for an additional four years.