Lawmakers Push Space Force to Seek More Commercial Integration

House lawmakers want the Space Force to buy more technology and services from commercial companies, evidenced in a handful of amendments approved as part of the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act. 

The bill, which the committee debated in a June 4 markup session, now includes at least five amendments that would require studies and plans to incorporate technology from nontraditional firms into missions like space domain awareness, space sensing, satellite communications, and autonomous satellite operations. 

One such amendment, offered by Rep. Jeff Crank (R-Colo.), would require the service to develop a plan for ingesting more commercial data into its High Accuracy Catalog, a nonpublic repository of space domain awareness data that provides precise tracking information for the U.S. military. 

“The committee encourages the Secretary of the Air Force, in coordination with the Chief of Space Operations, to continue developing and operationalizing mechanisms to ingest, validate, and fuse relevant commercial data into the HAC,” the amendment states. “The committee continues to encourage the Space Force to treat commercial data as a core element of a resilient, hybrid SDA architecture designed to operate effectively in a contested space domain.”

Another amendment would require the Space Force to brief Congress on a plan to transition pilot efforts involving commercial space domain awareness capabilities like low-latency video and motion imagery intelligence into operational programs. A provision proposed by Rep. George Whitesides (D-Calif.) calls for the service to buy “space-based commercial data and end products” to support DOD’s wildfire support efforts. 

The amendments approved this week follow language in the committee’s draft defense policy bill noting concern that while the Space Force and the Defense Department have issued strategies to increase their use of commercial space technology, the service’s fiscal 2027 budget request doesn’t reflect that stated intent. 

“The committee is concerned that, despite these strategies and congressional direction, the service is not making the investments needed in these areas to make them a reality for the warfighter,” the draft bill states.

The Space Force has said its fiscal 2027 budget includes at least $2.5 billion in visible funding for commercial off-the-shelf capabilities and services. However, they say more funding is embedded within program offices, making the actual total much higher.

“Commercial integration falls along a continuum whereby every USSF mission set now seeks to integrate commercial capability into its plans for future programs, in accordance with recent guidance to pursue commercial-first acquisition approaches,” a Space Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine just after the budget’s release in April. “The challenge is showing that a certain percentage of a system, satellite, or capability is commercial tech versus custom built for the government. In reality, many of these systems are a mix of the two.”

Col. Tim Trimailo, who leads the Space Force’s Commercial Space Office, or COMSO, said commercial integration is happening both through his office and, more importantly, throughout the space acquisition enterprise. Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, the head of the Space Force’s primary acquisition hub Space Systems Command, told reporters during the annual Space Symposium in April that over the last year the service has transitioned further toward a “commercial first” mindset.

“What you’re seeing is what I would call the normalization of ‘commercial first,’” Garrant said during an April 14 briefing. “The acquisition strategies are reflecting that, you’re seeing it in some of the recent solicitations. There’s still pockets of, I’ll call it seed corn, that are absolutely dedicated to commercial. But in general, you’re seeing the programs look to commercial first.”

Still, House lawmakers state in their bill they’re concerned about reductions to “seed corn” efforts, like Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking, the Joint Commercial Operations Cell, and the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve. For example, COMSO itself is funded through a dedicated commercial services line, which dropped from about $168 million in fiscal ‘26 appropriations to just $23 million in the Space Force’s fiscal ‘27 request. 

The bill calls on the Space Force to brief committee members on its plan to “sustain and scale” those key commercial efforts and directs the service to provide a five-year funding plan for all commercial services that includes on-ramps for new firms and for emerging dual-use technology as it matures.