U.S. Congress

A group remote sensing CEOs outlined the risks that come with potential budget cuts to commercial imagery programs in a letter to Congressional leaders. 

Iceye U.S. publicly shared the letter on Tuesday, which was also signed by the CEOs of Maxar, BlackSky, Capella Space, Planet Labs, and KSAT.  

According to the letter, the Fiscal Year 2026 budget request “entirely removes funding for a Commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (COMSAR) program, makes significant reductions to the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer (EOCL) program, and disregards funding for future Commercial Radio Frequency (RF) acquisitions at scale.” 

The EOCL contracts the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) awarded in 2022 to Maxar, BlackSky, and Planet, are the NRO’s largest-ever commercial imagery contract effort, and expanded how the NRO acquires commercial capabilities. The contracts are worth billions of dollars over a 10-year period. 

The proposed budget “contradicts congressional guidance, undermines national security, and disregards the private innovation on which our country thrives,” the letter says.

The letter points to how commercial imagery is used by the government in providing intelligence to Combatant Commands, enabling joint readiness with allies, supporting humanitarian aid and disaster response, and advancements in AI. 

The CEOs cautioned these cuts would stall programs like the Golden Dome, bolster China’s momentum in space, eliminate U.S. engineering and manufacturing jobs, and jeopardize investment in the U.S. aerospace sector. 

“The decision to abandon America’s vetted and reliable commercial remote sensing capabilities, while adversaries China, Russia and Iran rapidly expand their state-backed Earth observation infrastructure is ironic, shortsighted, and perilous,” the CEOs said. 

“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.”