What Congress Doesn’t Get:

Lawmakers don’t understand the Transformational Communications Satellite program, writes Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, so have “slashed” funding and cast doubt on whether the TSAT constellation “will ever be built.” The long-time defense analyst declares, “Losing TSAT would be a tragedy, because it can fill many gaps in the existing communications system.” He notes that its higher-capacity links built around Internet-like connectivity would open all joint resources to warfighters in real time no matter where they are. But, Thompson questions whether “Congress can grasp the promise of TSAT.”