I think they were to be used as short term low orbit replacement GPS satellites. To be used in case our regular GPS system was somehow shot down or rendered inoperative. Like from an EMP.
I think they came as both sea launched and air launched systems.

With a trillion dollars of defense spending and years of work already behind you of course you could look competitive against todays civilian market.

But take away all the defense moneys and they don’t look all that great.

They have hundreds of billions of dollars of private nonpublic research and the US government handing them other peoples patents in the name of ‘defense’ to make themselves look good.

At least a large portion of NASA’s research is public knowledge and usable by private corporations. So at least some of the money spent on them can be utilized fairly by all civilian companies.