LeoLabs CEO and co-founder Dan Ceperley says the firm has a mission “to drive a new era of transparency in LEO.”

Those polled said that resiliency and cyber protection are the two most valued requirements for future milcom systems. The survey also found that there is widespread agreement that the current acquisition systems in place across the Air Force, Army, Navy and DoD are too creaky.

Data from Kleos satellites will be able to cue other intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellites or aircraft as they spot ships.

“When you talk about resiliency and the fight tonight, I’m bringing out everything and the kitchen sink. I’m gonna MacGyver anything I can bring,” says AFSPC Brig. Gen. DeAnna Burt.

“We anticipate that adversary nations are unlikely to discriminate between U.S. military satellites and commercial satellites providing services to the U.S. Government, in the event of a conflict,” Defense Secretary nominee Mark Esper told the Senate during his confirmation hearing.

“To be quite honest most of our space systems are not the leading edge technologies,” Troy Meink, head of GEOINT at NRO, said. “We’ve not kept up in many cases with the commercial environment.”

House appropriators rejected Trump’s plan to put satellite regulation under the Commerce Department and chide Secretary Wilbur Ross for his refusal to testify on the 2020 budget request.

“Security in space is different than security on Earth,” says Jeb Linton of IBM Watson. “If you lose command and control for even five minutes, your satellite could be completely shut down.”

“Much of the excitement surrounding the ‘new space age’ is centered on recent innovations and growth seen in the commercial satellite industry,” said Tom Stoup, president of the Satellite Industry Association.