Courtney Albon
The Space Development Agency has 19 transport satellites in orbit and will launch another 126 spacecraft over the next year. (Northrop Grumman)
The Space Force’s fiscal 2026 budget request proposes stalling plans to buy a third batch of communication satellites through the Space Development Agency as it weighs whether an existing constellation, largely dominated by SpaceX, is better suited for the mission.
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman confirmed the pause in a congressional hearing Thursday, telling senate appropriators the service is studying “other avenues” to use small, commercial satellites flying in low orbits to provide low-latency communications to troops on the ground.
“We are simply looking at alternatives as we look to the future as to what’s the best way to scale this up to the larger requirements for data transport,” he said.
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’s Starshield, a business unit that builds a military version of its Starlink spacecraft, is on contract for the effort, providing satellites, terminals and operations support.
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