Commercial providers of satellite services face a trust gap with military buyers

WASHINGTON — Despite growing enthusiasm for new space internet services, some military buyers remain distrustful of commercial solutions as a replacement for government-developed systems, a senior procurement official said June 2.

“We see the LEO mania, and the new capability available … but customers have a bit of a trust issue,” Clare Grason, chief of the Space Force’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office, said during an online event hosted by the Aerospace Corp. 

Services provided by commercial satellites from low Earth orbit are one item on a growing menu of options offered by LEO, medium orbit and geostationary Earth orbit satellite operators to fill military communications needs. Grason said her office — which is responsible for matching military satcom demand with commercial suppliers — is “trying to get DoD comfortable that commercial solutions are reliable and dependable. We are trying to build confidence.”