Executives with five U.S. government-focused satellite operators reacted with a mixture of skepticism and hope to a recent Defense Department report that said commercial satellite bandwidth typically costs military customers four times more than comparable bandwidth on the Air Force-owned Wideband Global Satcom system.

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Mike Gruss is the chief content and strategy officer at SpaceNews. From 2013 to 2016 he was a senior reporter at SpaceNews covering military space. Previously, he was editor in chief of Sightline Media Group and worked as a reporter and columnist for...