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OPINION:
Assured access to space requires the Space Force to maintain more than one way for America to get there. This is more than just the law; it’s a strategic necessity.
For many years and through many administrations, Congress has required the U.S. Air Force, and now the Space Force, to maintain more than one operating space launch vehicle capable of reaching all of America’s national security orbits.
Assured access was incredibly important when it was first enacted because space had become a powerful force multiplier for America’s terrestrial military forces. It eliminated an adversary’s element of surprise, improved communication, created situational awareness and made large, complex, multiservice operations possible. With space, our military was effectively twice the size its simple numbers would otherwise indicate.
However, after the space shuttle program ended, only a single U.S. company was capable of doing that: United Launch Alliance.
This was a heavy responsibility that sometimes transcended industrial and cost efficiency. As a result of this burden, ULA was required to maintain two redundant rocket families: Atlas and Delta.
Over the past two decades, SpaceX has grown from flying some orbits to reaching the full national security mission set, enabling the retirement of the Delta rocket and the transition from the Atlas to the newer, more efficient Vulcan rocket. With any luck, Blue Origin will join the heavy-lift provider club shortly, giving the United States a robust and resilient three-company industrial base.
Although this is good news, some would argue that it would be simpler and more cost-effective to conduct a winner-take-all down-select and pick one launch provider. The first contract would almost certainly be low-cost, but after that, it would be a monopoly, which is never the path to sustaining low prices or innovation.
Competition is a good thing; it disciplines costs while driving performance. Abandoning this principle would leave the nation in a severely weakened and brittle defensive state.
What if a vehicle had an endemic fleet issue that grounded it for months or longer? What if a failure at a launch site destroyed a pad that takes years to rebuild? What if an adversary sponsored a “terrorist” bombing at the rocket factory or a critical supply chain was compromised?
The answers are all the same: America’s conventional deterrent to war would be severely damaged, and at the moment, it can least afford it. Space is far too vital to tolerate a single string capability.
Space is no longer merely a force multiplier. It has become absolutely essential for even basic military operations, including missile warning, secure communications and intelligence, as well as surveillance and reconnaissance, positioning, navigation and timing. Without it, our forces are sitting ducks for any near-peer adversary. Russia and China know this. They have invested decades and billions of dollars in creating and deploying counter-space capabilities and weapons.
If a conflict happens with China, it will begin in space. The People’s Liberation Army will level the playing field by attacking satellites and blinding our forces, leaving them without communication, isolated and uncoordinated, uncertain even as to their exact location. Deaf, mute, blind and lost, our sailors, soldiers and airmen would be easy prey.
A secure American space enterprise helps deter aggression. It is the key that locks the door on an attack upon Taiwan, our allies and even the American homeland. The prescience of past leaders in creating assured access is remarkable and undeniable; the need is even clearer today.
We must avoid the short-term temptation of either encouraging or accepting a single vehicle or a single dominant national security launch provider. In today’s environment of robust commercial space markets and intertwined super companies under the control of a few people or a single person, national security may not be the highest priority.
Assured access has become a nonnegotiable element of projecting and preserving American strength in space.
• Tory Bruno is president and CEO of United Launch Alliance.
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