U.S. Air Force Wideband Global Satcom communications satellite.

A defense authorization bill that cleared a U.S. Senate panel last week would prohibit the Air Force from spending $30 million this year to experiment with new ways of buying commercial satellite communications bandwidth unless the Pentagon can show the program will yield significant advantages over relying on the current generation of military-owned satellites.

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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...