Commercial Remote Sensing Companies Call on Congress to fully fund programs vital for National Interests

June 16, 2025

The commercial remote sensing sector is a cornerstone of U.S. national security, underpinning critical defense, intelligence, and civil missions. Through these space and ground technologies, our systems provide Combatant Commands with real-time intel, enable joint readiness with allies, offer dependable tools for humanitarian aid and disaster response, and accelerate leaps in artificial intelligence.

Any cut to federal funding that supports these programs puts our national security at risk. That’s why ICEYE US CEO Eric Jensen, along with other industry leaders including Maxar Technologies, BlackSky, Capella Space, KSAT Inc., and Planet, wrote congressional leaders expressing deep concerns that the Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposes blanket cuts to commercial remote sensing programs. This move would contradict congressional guidance, jeopardize national security, and disregard the private innovation that drives American leadership across the aerospace and defense sectors. 

Read the full letter below.

June 16, 2025

The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Chairman
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Ken Calvert
Chairman
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Tom Cotton
Chairman
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Rick Crawford
Chairman
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Roger Wicker
Chairman
Senate Armed Services Committee
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Mike Rogers
Chairman
House Armed Services Committee
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Chris Coons
Ranking Member
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Betty McCollum
Ranking Member
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Mark Warner
Vice Chairman
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Jim Himes
Ranking Member
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Jack Reed
Ranking Member 
Senate Armed Services Committee
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Adam Smith
Ranking Member
House Armed Services Committee
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairmen McConnell, Calvert, Cotton, Crawford, Wicker, and Rogers, Vice Chairman Warner, and Ranking Members Coons, McCollum, Himes, Reed, and Smith:

As leaders in America’s remote sensing industry, we are deeply concerned that the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget proposes sweeping cuts to commercial remote sensing programs.  Doing so contradicts congressional guidance, undermines national security, and disregards the private innovation on which our country thrives. 

Congress strongly supports the prioritized adoption of private capabilities that meet national security needs. Section 1612 of the FY21 NDAA and Section 7509 of the FY24 NDAA mandate the integration of commercial capabilities by federal agencies for defense purposes. Recent Executive Orders and the Pentagon's 2024 Commercial Space Integration Strategy echo these statutes.  Yet, the FY26 budget request would entirely remove funding for a Commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (COMSAR) program (i.e. Radar Commercial Layer), remove funding for the procurement of Commercial Radio Frequency services, and significantly reduce funding for the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) program ostensibly in favor of less-responsive and costlier Government-owned and operated systems.

The commercial remote sensing sector has delivered and innovated. Our firms have invested billions of dollars in space and ground technologies, creating highly skilled jobs, and deploying hundreds of satellites that now underpin critical defense, intelligence, and civil science missions. Our systems provide real-time intelligence to Combatant Commands, enable joint readiness with allies, offer reliable tools for humanitarian aid and disaster response, and support leaps in artificial intelligence (AI). Eliminating this funding would sever critical data streams, stall key programs like Golden Dome and the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve, and cede space industry leadership to China, whose state-backed enterprises are accelerating rapidly.

The proposed retrenchment from adopting commercial remote sensing capabilities would:

• Further bolster China's momentum and fuel its space dominance expectations;
• Eliminate highly skilled U.S. engineering and manufacturing jobs;
• Eliminate essential remote sensing data supporting current U.S. intelligence and defense operations worldwide as shared with allies;
• Derail the data infrastructure essential to maintaining U.S. leadership in AI for defense applications; 
• Upend plans for future National systems which consider current commercial roadmaps;
• Diminish the credibility of U.S. remote sensing companies within international markets; and
• Jeopardize future investments in the United States aerospace sector.

The decision to abandon America’s vetted and dependable commercial remote sensing capabilities, while adversaries China, Russia and Iran rapidly expand their state-backed Earth observation infrastructure, is ironic, shortsighted, and perilous. Doing so reverses over a decade of bipartisan work while forfeiting the advantages of speed, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness that commercial systems uniquely deliver. Congress has laid out clear mandates to integrate commercial products and services into defense and intelligence operations. Those directives must not be ignored by bureaucratic apathy or institutional bias favoring government-owned systems. We urge you to reaffirm Congress’s leadership by enforcing these mandates, holding agencies accountable to the law, and ensuring that commercial remote sensing capabilities receive stable, sustained funding in FY26 and beyond as informed by defense, civil, and intelligence requirements.

Commercial data is a mission-critical resource. Disrupting access to it degrades operational readiness, limits coalition interoperability, and constrains innovation at a time when efficiency and adaptability are paramount.

We stand ready to work with you to ensure the U.S. continues to lead the world in Earth observation technology. Our warfighters, allies, and our citizens now depend on your support for the remote sensing industry.

Sincerely,

BLACKSKY

Capella Space Corp

HAWKEYE360

ICEYE US 

Dan Adams 
President 
KSAT Inc

MAXAR

Will Marshall 
Chief Executive Officer 
Planet Labs 

UMBRA