French Defense Budget Proposes Milsatcom Privatization | SpaceNews.com

By Peter B. de Selding, SpaceNews, Posted 10/13/09

Link: http://www.spacenews.com/satellite_telecom/french-defense-budget-proposes-mil...

"The French Defense Ministry’s 2010 budget request would sell France’s military satellite telecommunications system to a private-sector operator that would lease 90 percent of the capacity back to the French government, and would retain the remaining 10 percent to sell to other governments on a commercial basis."

This appears to be one aspect of the French-style commercialization of space. Could this happen in the U.S.?   Military space entities in the U.S. are already leasing portions of commercially-developed communication satellites for their own use.  Is the current NASA COTS program a step in this direction as some think?  Is this shift toward commercialization both inevitable and wise?