The Department of Defense’s expansion of the Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) program, and its drive to add new international partners to the global constellation, has resulted in the U.S. government’s becoming a front-line competitor in the commercial wideband satellite market. Not only does the program appear focused on replacing as much commercial capacity as possible, the government is becoming the de facto service provider to a host of high-value customers heretofore dependent on reliable, cost-effective satellite communication services from commercial operators. These customers are effectively now “off the market” to the commercial sector for the long term, eroding the vibrant satellite bandwidth market.