NEW: The U.S. Space Force is generating so much satellite data that its communications network risks becoming a battlefield bottleneck, according to a new Mitchell Institute report. Military space sensors now produce up to 200× more data than two decades ago, but much of it still has to move through legacy radio-frequency links that were never designed for today’s volume. The report argues the Space Force needs to accelerate laser communications, which can move data 10–40× faster using beams nearly 1,000× narrower — making them harder to detect, intercept and jam. It also calls for more AI and edge processing onboard satellites so they can filter and prioritize the most important information before sending it to commanders. The warning is straight forward: the U.S. is rapidly adding sensors in orbit, but unless it upgrades the network connecting them, the data may arrive too slowly to matter.