The Space Force’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office is forecasting a busy 2025, with somewhere nearly $2.4 billion dollars in contracts not only for USSF, but also combatant commands and every other military service.
The office forecasted its needs for the next 12 months to industry in a December release that covers the rest of fiscal 2025 and extends into fiscal 2026, complete with estimated lifecycle values for many of the 18 programs. The combined value of the high end of those estimates is $2.37 billion, though some programs do not have an estimate, meaning the true value could be even higher.
That’s an increase of 39.4 percent forecast last year, when the spending estimate was nearly $1.7 billion, which in turn was more than double the $638 million spend in 2022.
By far the largest program of the bunch is the Space Force’s “Maneuverable GEO.” Officials have described it as a marketplace to take advantage of small commercial communications satellites that can move in geosynchronous orbit, a growing market. The office anticipates awarding contracts for the program in July worth up to $905 million.
There is also a program meant to procure commercial satellite bandwidth for connectivity between Pituffik Space Base in Greenland and Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado.
But most of the programs included in the forecast are for non-Space Force entities, as the Commercial Space Communications Office is responsible for procuring SATCOM services for the entire Pentagon.
The Marine Corps is looking for enterprise commercial satellite services—meaning satellite bandwidth in all commercially available frequency bands in regions around the globe—with an estimated cost of up to $550 million over seven years.
The Army wants SATCOM as a managed service, potentially worth $205 million over five years.
The Navy wants commercial SATCOM for senior leadership aircraft, at an estimated cost of $50 million.
The Air Force wants commercial SATCOM for controlling RQ-4 Global Hawk drones and for use on its E-4B “Doomsday” planes.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command wants commercial satellite bandwidth to conduct “Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance and Command & Control missions.”
Even the Coast Guard is asking the Commercial Satellite Communications Office to procure services for its aviation assets.
The Space Force has made a push to bolster its satellite communications capacity with a combination of new commercial and military capabilities.
In its 2025 budget request, the service devoted $4.4 billion to SATCOM—nearly 15 percent of its entire budget. And in its commercial strategy released in April 2024, the Space Force listed SATCOM as its No. 1 priority mission area for partnering with industry.
On one hand, constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink have proven to be useful “off-the-shelf” commercial solutions for some missions. On the other, the Space Force is investing hundreds of millions of dollars for more secure, jam-resistant communications for strategic and tactical missions alike.