"There’s three barriers, at least, for the Space Force that we continually run into for commercial technology integration. The first one is requirements. … The second one is on classification, and the third one is on operational integration," Col. Tim Trimailo said at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Bethesda.
Col. Tim Trimailo and the Commercial Space Office (COMSO)
Trimailo, who leads the Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office (COMSO), framed the problem succinctly: the Space Force is acquiring commercial data and technologies but struggling to embed them into routine operations. COMSO’s charter, he said, is to identify commercial capabilities of interest and to speed those capabilities to the field. Trimailo acknowledged ongoing disconnects between acquisition personnel and operators and pointed to recent organisational experiments — notably the Mission Deltas and participation in tabletop exercises — as partial remedies.
Government Accountability Office: hesitancy within the service
A Government Accountability Office report released the same day found "hesitancy" inside the Space Force about purchasing and using commercial space data. The GAO quoted officials in several key Space Force organisations — including the service’s Combat Forces Command, the operational unit that provides trained operators to US Space Command — saying they were reluctant to turn to commercial providers because of "licensing costs, perceived use restrictions, and concerns over long-term access to the data."
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End the scrambleJoint Commercial Operations Cell, Global Data Marketplace, and the working group
The Joint Commercial Operations Cell (JCO) is the principal office buying commercial data and services not only for the Space Force but also for US combatant commands and other government agencies. The JCO routes acquisitions through a contractor-operated Global Data Marketplace and has focused purchases to support space domain awareness and "tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking (TacSRT)" missions. According to the GAO, the office spent $76.8 million on purchases via the marketplace from January 2023 through September 2025.
JCO also runs an informal "Cross-Government Commercial Data Sharing Working Group" that meets monthly and includes agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The GAO concluded many of the Space Force challenges could have been addressed in that forum, but found that Space Force officials were not part of the working group and that information about the working group is "not widely available."
Operational-acquisition divide, budgets, and exercises
Breaking Defense quoted service officials who described a long-standing communication gap between the acquisition corps and operational units. "They just don't talk to each other," one official said on the condition of anonymity. Several officials said the problem has been exacerbated by the rush to obligate a fiscal 2026 investment budget of $18.8 billion, plus $5.9 billion provided in the 2025 budget reconciliation package, and by preparations for a hoped-for influx of funds for FY27.
Those pressures, one Space Force official said, have led the service to buy both new hardware and commercial capabilities "willy-nilly" without always accounting for downstream needs — specifically funding for training or fully worked concepts of operations for how the new technologies will be used. Trimailo highlighted two initiatives intended to bridge the divide: the Mission Deltas, created in 2024 to integrate acquisition professionals responsible for maintenance and sustainment into the operational deltas, and US Space Command’s Apollo Insight tabletop exercises, which he said are designed to bring operators, acquisition staff, and commercial firms together. The first planned wargame in that series was held in March. Trimailo also said his team working on the Space Systems Command’s Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) plan is participating in those wargames.
What this means for Combat Forces Command, the JCO, and commercial firms
- Combat Forces Command: Officials in that organisation told GAO they are wary of commercial data because of licensing costs, perceived use restrictions, and uncertainty about long-term access — factors that constrain operational uptake.
- JCO: The cell remains the acquisition hub, having spent $76.8 million through the Global Data Marketplace from January 2023 to September 2025, and it operates the Cross-Government working group intended to resolve cross-agency issues — a forum the GAO says could address many Space Force concerns if Space Force operators were more engaged.
- Commercial firms: The service is inviting industry into exercises such as Apollo Insight and the CASR tabletop events to demonstrate capabilities and to test operational integration, but firms will face continued friction from licensing and classification constraints unless those barriers are resolved.
Trimailo also raised an organisational uncertainty: COMSO’s future placement under the Space Force’s recent reorganisation of the acquisition core into Portfolio Acquisition Executive (PAE) offices remains unclear. He said his "best bet" is that COMSO will end up under the Infrastructure PAE.
The record offered here is straightforward: the Space Force is buying commercial capabilities, the JCO is expanding purchases, and multiple offices are trying to stitch acquisition and operations together. Yet GAO and service officials both describe persistent cultural, legal and procedural barriers — requirements, classification, and operational integration — that are keeping commercial data from becoming routine operational tools. Those barriers, officials warned, have already led to purchases without fully planned training or concepts of operations, and they underline the work still to be done as new budgets are obliged and exercises continue.
