“We’ve heard you loud and clear on this within the DoD. I’m not going to say this is going to solve every bit of it, but it’s going to help us a bit,” Pentagon CIO John Sherman said.

“In the end, what we’re really going to have to figure out here is: what needs to change? Is it policies? Is it authorities? Is it processes? Is it funding? Is it purely just advocacy and communication?” said National Space Council Director Chirag Parikh.

In an exclusive sit down with Breaking Defense, Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth defended his agency’s role in moving commercial and government satellite data to the field in a timely manner.

The delay in the review, however, is not expected to impact the planned delivery schedule, an Air Force spokesperson said. That said, neither the Pentagon nor the NRO has revealed the hoped-for schedule. 

Meanwhile, the report says, the Space Force should be in charge of pursuing large networks of small satellites under the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) — differentiating its “tactical ISR” job from the “strategic” mission of NRO.

The status change should give the Space Force more weight in debate about how to share acquisition authority for commercial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Lt. Gen. David Miller, head of Space Operations Command, said the ongoing tussle with the Intelligence Community is like when dogs first meet in a dog park. “The dogs like spend five minutes sniffing each other’s butts. That’s the phase I think we’re in. We just need to get off that,” he said.

“I don’t want to take a very expensive, very, very capable [alternative] PNT system that belongs on, let’s say, a Stryker platform or an Abrams tank or something like that, and … stick it on the robot that is the one that I’m training to take first contact,” Michael Monteleone, head of the Army’s new All-Domain Sensing CFT, explained. 

The new project, called Maru, “will provide the means to replace legacy applications and to integrate modernized exploitation capabilities for the IC, DoD and our international partners,” the NGA spokesperson told Breaking Defense.

The Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared constellation’s first satellite may see its launch pushed back by a year to 2026.