Initiated as a pilot effort in 2023, TacSRT established a marketplace where CoComs can directly purchase commercial imagery and related data analytics. In order to expand the program, the Space Force received an additional $40 million in funding as part of the continuing resolution passed by Congress in March. 

“The addition of this money represents a congressional vote of confidence in our efforts to tap into the commercial space market for the collective good,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman said Wednesday during his keynote address at the annual Space Symposium.

Saltzman and other service leaders have touted the success of TacSRT in recent months, especially the initiative’s ability to rapidly deliver critical information to warfighters. Through the program’s Global Data Marketplace, combatant commands can put in requests for “operational planning products” that include unclassified data from imagery and sensors collected by commercial space vendors. 

Col. Rob Davis, program executive officer for space sensing at Space Systems Command, told reporters Wednesday that TacSRT data is primarily being used to support humanitarian operations and monitoring of illegal fishing around the world. 

And while the pilot version of TacSRT initially supported U.S. Africa Command, leaders at other combatant commands are leveraging the program’s marketplace as well. For example, U.S. Central Command also purchased commercial data analytics during construction of the Joint-Logistics-Over-the-Shore pier in Gaza, and TacSRT provided U.S. Southern Command with real-time tracking of wildfires in South America, according to the Space Force.

As it looks to scale TacSRT, the service is still figuring out the best ways to operationalize the program, Davis said.

In the TacSRT Tools Applications and Processing Lab, “we are doing the development of additional techniques, partnering with industry, partnering with [Space Force] component field commands … to develop new tools that we can then operationalize, as well,” Davis said during a media roundtable. “We continue, in that more developmental space, to do ad hoc support through that experimental space to answer questions that combatant commands have.”

With plans to expand TacSRT, the Space Force is also working with the intelligence community — including the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office — to delineate roles and responsibilities for purchasing commercial imagery. 

Under current Pentagon-IC policies, NGA is responsible for buying analytical models and ISR products from commercial providers, as well as determining who across the government receives the packaged data. At the same time, the NRO is tasked with acquiring imagery from commercial remote sensing satellites and disseminating it across the Pentagon and intelligence community. 

However, the Space Force’s TacSRT pilot caused some tension between the service and intelligence agencies — with some concerned that the Space Force’s acquisition and distribution of space-based commercial imagery is a duplication of NGA’s and NRO’s work. 

But after years of back and forth, NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth told DefenseScoop in an interview that the agency and the Space Force have drafted a “memorandum of agreement” over the relationship between NGA and TacSRT. The service is also finalizing a similar agreement with the NRO, according to a report from Breaking Defense.

Whitworth explained that in his role as functional manager for geospatial intelligence, he is charged with oversight of both the Defense Department’s and intelligence community’s acquisition of space-based ISR from commercial satellites. To that end, his responsibility moving forward will be reporting on the use of commercial imagery in warfighting — including via TacSRT — to lawmakers while also involving the Space Force, he said.

“This fits beautifully into being that integrator, and Congress feels the same way from a stewardship perspective,” Whitworth said. “So getting to that issue [of] we’re not paying twice, keeping that denominator involving TacSRT officially in our world and vice-versa is healthy.”

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The package was announced by the Pentagon on Tuesday. The list of capabilities put out by the Department of Defense did not specify which company or companies would provide the satellite imagery services, or how much of the funding would be allotted for that.

Notably, the capabilities included in the new package will be procured from industry using Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds — not drawn from existing DOD stocks.

“I don’t have anything specific to announce today in terms of particular companies that we may or may not be contracting with through this USAI effort. That will be work that’s ongoing, certainly, as we look at options on how best to support Ukraine,” Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told DefenseScoop during a press briefing.

Tuesday’s announcement did not specify how the Ukrainians would use the commercial satellite imagery services. However, such assistance would likely aid the Ukrainian military — which is expected to launch a counteroffensive soon — by increasing their situational awareness and helping them target Russian forces.

In its fiscal 2022 annual report, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit noted that “commercial remote sensing companies … are providing satellite images of Russian military activities in Ukraine, generating an unprecedented level of visibility and driving accountability.”

The package announced on Tuesday also includes funding for additional air defense systems and munitions; equipment to integrate Western air defense launchers, missiles and radars with Ukraine’s air defense systems; and ammunition for counter-drone systems.

Defeating Russian unmanned aerial systems — including loitering munitions — missiles and other aircraft is a top priority for Ukrainian officials. The U.S. has previously committed to providing a variety of air-defense capabilities to Kyiv, such as the Patriot system and the VAMPIRE counter-UAS platform, among others.

The DOD did not identify which specific air-defense systems are included in the new round of security assistance. In the past the Pentagon has sometimes disclosed that type of information, but in other cases it has remained tight-lipped.

Ryder told reporters that the specific air-defense systems have not yet been determined.

“Today’s announcement is really focused on, or represents rather the beginning of a contracting process to provide additional priority capabilities to Ukraine, which will entail exploring options as to how to best support them,” he said.

The tranche also includes additional 155mm artillery rounds and support for training, maintenance and sustainment activities.

Since the weapons in the package will be procured from military contractors using USAI funds — not drawn from existing DOD stocks — they may not be delivered to Ukraine for many months. However, the procurement of commercial satellite imagery services could potentially come sooner.

“This USAI package underscores the continued U.S. commitment to meeting Ukraine’s most urgent requirements by committing critical near-term capabilities, such as air defense systems and munitions, while also building the capacity of Ukraine’s Armed Forces to defend its territory and deter Russian aggression over the long term,” the DOD said in a release.

Updated on May 9, 2023, at 5:00 PM: This story has been updated to include comments from Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

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