Military Ka-band satellite communications service from a commercial satellite is being provided by Boeing to a U.S. government entity.

The unidentified government agency's use of the Inmarsat 5 communications satellite is authorized through September of next year, Boeing said.

"The government continues to have an unmet demand for military satellite communications, and we believe that commercially available space assets can play a vital role in helping to meet this demand," said Jim Mitchell, vice president of Boeing Commercial Satellite Services (BCSS). "Our mission is to identify and facilitate the use of available commercial communications capacity on behalf of U.S. government customers and allies."

Boeing said it is working with U.S. satellite technology company ViaSat to provide the service through Inmarsat 5, which entered service earlier this year.

Inmarsat 5 is the first of four Inmarsat-5 spacecraft being built by Boeing. It is part of Inmarsat's Global Xpress system, a high-speed mobile broadband service for government and commercial users.

Boeing said it is authorized to resell Inmarsat capacity to U.S. government organizations but provided no additional details.