Japan is planning an up to $3 billion satellite constellation aimed at providing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and other images to deter China, but U.S. companies looking to get into the competition are thus far barred by U.S. State Department International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). U.S. SAR companies include Capella Space and Umbra Space. Since the 1980s, Japan has been developing reconnaissance satellites, but their quality, especially SAR variants, has been "not good," one analyst said. Japan is flying…
