Disputes over spectrum use by mega-constellations in low Earth orbit, such as SpaceX's Starlink, also carry heavy political baggage at the 2023 World Radio Conference that starts tomorrow in Dubai.
When it comes to leveraging commercial space tech, one analyst said, "The old adage holds — show me your budget and I’ll show you your priorities."
Todd Master, Umbra's chief operating officer and a former DARPA official, told Breaking Defense on May 22 that DRIFT "is a legitimately great example of how government can actually advance capability using commercial investments instead of just saying 'leverage commercial' over and over."
The month-long World Radiocommunications Conference in Dubai will decide whether to change how spectrum use is allocate among various users - including spectrum needed by DoD planes and ships operating abroad.
Under the deal, Maxar will be able to expand its SAR data offerings to international customers, and Umbra will get global eyes on its products, company officials told Breaking Defense.
"There is significant value in unclassified, shareable SAR imagery. And we've seen that in Ukraine. And so I think that has changed people's minds quite a bit which has given a lot of momentum to ... how government thinks about future procurements," Capella CEO Payam Banazadeh told Breaking Defense.