The Defense Department recognizes the imperative to centralize funding of commercial satellite communication services and develop standardized metrics for evaluating its bandwidth needs, but a DOD report delivered to Congress late last month emphasizes that developing a long-term strategy will take substantial initial investment and experimentation. DOD has, since 2001, relied on overseas contingency operations funding to procure commercial satellite communication (COMSATCOM) services -- a trend that developed during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan when the service found itself in...
