Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld famously said, you go to war with the army you have, not the one you wish you had. The same could be true of satellites.

In recent years, military leaders have been vocal about the need to become less dependent on commercial communications satellites.

Officials such as Army CIO Lieutenant General Steve Boutelle point out, the military conducts 80 percent of its communications in Iraq via commercial satellites. That poses a security vulnerability.

But GCN.com reports, military leaders are changing their tune. They're reaffirming their need for commercial satellites. Why? For one thing, they realize that the next wave of government satellites will take years to develop and launch. And that even then, demand may exceed the new birds' capabilities.

This doesn't mean DOD officials are abandoning government satellites. The services continue to invest billions in military satellites. For example, The Transformational Satellite Communications initiative.

For more, visit Government Computer News online at GCN.com.