Stacey Dixon, principal deputy director of national intelligence and a two-time Wash100 Award winner, said the Biden administration and the Intelligence Community are advancing efforts to promote competition and minimize regulatory burdens in the market for commercial remote sensing satellites, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.
“It is important to realize and recognize that there’s a growing consensus, not only in the IC but also among policy-makers, that the kind of change that we’ve seen in launch services is the right way to go in other areas,” Dixon said at a conference Wednesday.
She noted that the U.S. government should pursue that change by advancing regulatory reform in the remote sensing area to help address the threats posed by foreign competitors.
“If we don’t adapt, others will set the rules and challenge our new leadership. We should set the rules. We should influence the standards, and do so in a way that is consistent with our democratic values,” Dixon said.
She said the IC is working to increasingly incorporate industry input into its deliberations to better understand the needs of commercial enterprises.
“We want to pare down the constraints you face to only those that are absolutely necessary, particularly when it comes to competing on capabilities that are commercially available from others,” Dixon noted.
“While lifting some restrictions will not be possible, because custom and classified GEOINT capabilities are still critical to helping us understand and confront core national security challenges, it should be possible to provide a unified clear response that will allow you to make the investments you need and want to make more quickly,” she added.
