Maxar executive renews warning that budget cuts threaten commercial remote sensing industry

WASHINGTON — A Maxar Intelligence executive warned that the U.S. government risks undermining battlefield operations by cutting funding for commercial satellite imagery, renewing industry concerns raised in a June letter to Congress.

“The industry has proven the value of commercial imagery,” said Susanne Hake, general manager for U.S. government at Maxar Intelligence, speaking Sept. 11 at an aerospace industry conference hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

U.S. combatant commands, including Indo-Pacific Command where Hake recently met with officials, have made clear “that they need more imagery, that there’s more demand than what’s being provided,” she said. 

Her remarks underscore growing unease in the industry as the Trump administration’s 2026 budget proposal moves through Capitol Hill. The plan calls for a roughly 30% reduction — about $130 million — in the National Reconnaissance Office’s procurement of commercial electro-optical imagery under the Electro-Optical Commercial Layer program. The administration also proposes eliminating funding entirely for synthetic aperture radar imagery, a capability widely used since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Hake pressed the case that commercial firms can deliver faster and at less cost than bespoke government satellites, but need predictable funding and contracts to keep investing. “We commercial companies have shown that we can deliver at scale, but in order to do that, we do need long-term contracts and consistent funding in order for us to be able to build our technology,” she said.

The CEOs of Maxar, Planet, BlackSky, Iceye US, Capella Space and ground systems provider KSAT wrote to lawmakers in June warning that the proposed cuts could “reverse years of progress” in integrating commercial services into national security operations. Hake’s remarks this week show the industry is keeping up the pressure as appropriators weigh whether to restore funding.

“We’re at a point where I think the government does need to decide, do they want to buy imagery that’s available, that’s ready to be deployed, that’s proven, or do they want to go it alone? And do they want to continue to build these really bespoke, highly classified systems?” Hake said. “Commercial imagery is ready to go now. It can be used today, or they can wait six, eight years and spend billions of dollars building systems.”

Colorado-based Maxar Intelligence, a unit of Maxar Technologies, is the largest U.S. supplier of high-resolution electro-optical commercial imagery. 

Hake also pointed to growing international competition. “That ability for the U.S. to have that capability is not a given. China is actively investing in their own commercial remote sensing capabilities,” she said. “I think we need continued investment if we want to keep winning.”