President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan on Monday reinforced his commitment to allowing the US military to stay on his territory and use the Manas Air Base to support operations in Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press. Bakiyev said the US is welcome to stay as long as it takes to bring stability to Afghanistan, but said that the rent for the base will increase.
In the Space Force’s push to increase its consumption of commercial satellite capabilities, satellite communications stands out as the template. The question now is how broadly the Space Force will look to leverage additional SATCOM providers.