Space Force Struggles to Integrate Commercial Space Data, Officials Say

Despite growing efforts to acquire commercial space technology, products, and data, the US Space Force is struggling to integrate these capabilities into its day-to-day operations, according to service officials cited by Breaking Defense.

What Officials Said

"There's three barriers, at least, for the Space Force that we continually run into for commercial technology integration. The first one is requirements. ... The second one is on classification, and the third one is on operational integration," Col. Tim Trimailo, head of the Space Systems Command's Commercial Space Office (COMSO), told the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Bethesda, Maryland. COMSO is the Space Force unit charged with identifying commercial capabilities of interest to the service and helping speed those capabilities to the field.

GAO Findings

Trimailo's remarks were echoed in a report released the same day by the Government Accountability Office, which found "hesitancy" within the service about "purchasing and using commercial space data." Officials in several key Space Force organizations, including the Combat Forces Command that supplies trained operators to US Space Command, told GAO they were reluctant to turn to commercial providers due to worries about licensing costs, perceived use restrictions, and concerns over long-term access to the data.

These concerns persist despite ongoing efforts by the Joint Commercial Operations Cell (JCO), the main service office responsible for buying commercial data and services, to expand its portfolio. The JCO buys commercial data and services not only for the Space Force but also for US combatant commands and other government agencies. Its acquisitions go through the contractor-operated Global Data Marketplace and currently focus on data and services supporting space domain awareness and "tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking" missions. The office spent $76.8 million on purchases via the marketplace from January 2023 through September 2025, according to GAO.

The JCO also runs the informal Cross-Government Commercial Data Sharing Working Group to coordinate interagency purchases of commercial space data, which includes the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, helping to resolve issues that arise in obtaining and acquiring that data.

Why It Matters

The Space Force has increasingly leaned on commercial satellite operators for imagery, data, and space domain awareness capabilities. The barriers identified by officials — requirements definition, classification handling, and operational integration — along with service-wide hesitancy over licensing and data-access concerns, suggest that closing the gap between commercial capability and military use will require both policy and cultural changes, not just new purchases.