{"id":20535,"date":"2025-06-28T01:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T01:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20535\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T01:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T01:22:08","slug":"space-force-rethinking-plans-for-proliferated-satellite-communications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/20535\/","title":{"rendered":"Space Force rethinking plans for proliferated satellite communications"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Space Force\u2019s fiscal 2026 budget request proposes stalling plans to buy a third batch of communication satellites through the Space Development Agency<\/a> as it weighs whether an existing constellation, largely dominated by SpaceX, is better suited for the mission. <\/p>\n

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman confirmed the pause in a congressional hearing Thursday, telling senate appropriators the service is studying \u201cother avenues\u201d to use small, commercial satellites flying in low orbits to provide low-latency communications to troops on the ground. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are simply looking at alternatives as we look to the future as to what\u2019s the best way to scale this up to the larger requirements for data transport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The alternative the service is considering is a largely secretive and little-known program called MILNET, a space data network that could eventually include nearly 500 satellites. SpaceX\u2019s Starshield<\/a>, a business unit that builds a military version of its Starlink spacecraft, is on contract for the effort, providing satellites, terminals and operations support. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, SDA\u2019s transport layer is the service\u2019s flagship effort to prove that a large constellation of small satellites \u2014 built by multiple companies selected competitively<\/a> \u2014 can meet the military\u2019s tactical SATCOM needs. <\/p>\n

SDA has 19 transport satellites in orbit and is on track to launch another 126 spacecraft as part of the program\u2019s next phase, dubbed Tranche 1, beginning late this summer. Another 182 spacecraft are on contract, and the agency had planned to buy Tranche 3 satellites in 2026. <\/p>\n

Senators raised concerns Thursday about MILNET\u2019s dependency on SpaceX satellites and the potential that it could undermine the competitive environment and open architecture SDA has cultivated through its transport layer. <\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., claimed that MILNET has \u201cno competition, no open architecture, no leveraging a dynamic space ecosystem.\u201d <\/p>\n

Saltzman and Air Force Secretary Troy Meink noted that while the service is pausing future buys of SDA transport satellites as it evaluates its path forward, it hasn\u2019t made any firm decisions beyond that. Other elements of the program, they said, would move forward as planned.<\/p>\n

Meink added that MILNET is not tied to a single system or acquisition approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow we field that going forward into the future is something that\u2019s still under consideration, and we will look into the acquisition of that,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The service\u2019s budget request includes $277 million for MILNET \u2014 the first time the program appears in its public facing funding proposal \u2014 but it\u2019s not clear what that would fund. <\/p>\n

The Space Force didn\u2019t immediately provide clarification on the analysis it\u2019s conducting and its role on MILNET to date. And while it released some information Thursday on its fiscal 2026 budget request, it has yet to publish more detailed funding documents that could provide more insight into the effort.<\/p>\n

Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET\u2019s space and emerging technology reporter. She has covered the U.S. military since 2012, with a focus on the Air Force and Space Force. She has reported on some of the Defense Department\u2019s most significant acquisition, budget and policy challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Space Force\u2019s fiscal 2026 budget request proposes stalling plans to buy a third batch of communication satellites…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[19101,19100,19102,19094,19093,19097,19099,19095,159,783,16989,11268,19096,19098,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-20535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-circulated-c4isrnet","9":"tag-circulated-defense-news","10":"tag-defense-news","11":"tag-dod-budget","12":"tag-fiscal-2026-budget","13":"tag-gen-chance-saltzman","14":"tag-milnet","15":"tag-ndaa","16":"tag-science","17":"tag-space","18":"tag-space-development-agency","19":"tag-space-force","20":"tag-space-x","21":"tag-troy-meink","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}