At least to my knowledge it has been many decades since the U.S. Army was in the space business. Until NOW!
“Kestrel Eye is a technology demonstrator, but it holds the promise of providing tactical imagery to the soldier on the ground, and to do it responsively, persistently and reliably,”
From the Space News article as by Sandra Erwin thanks to the tip from Freeper.
"Army space project a now-or-never moment for low-cost military satellites"
"The Army's Kestrel Eye micro-satellite holds the promise of providing tactical imagery to soldiers on the ground."
"WASHINGTON — It’s been years in the making. A very small, low cost, visible imagery satellite that soldiers in the field will be able to control, giving them access to real-time intelligence."
Here for scale sake is the micro-satellite undergoing preparation prior to launch. Those solar panels unfold when the satellite placed into orbit into
COMMANDERS AT THE LOWER ECHELONS OF COMMAND NOT ABLE TO CONTROL THE INTELLIGENCE IMAGERY MISSION "END-TO-END" AS DESCRIBED!
"tactical commanders at the brigade level or lower would be empowered to control the entire imagery process from end-to-end, from the tasking of the satellite to the dissemination of the data."
Micro-satellites of this type all the rage and with good reason. Cost and developmental lead-time far less and you can proliferate the battlefield [outer space] with these devices in a way that is most advantageous.
coolbert.