On Thursday, President Trump’s Space Force took a big step towards becoming more than just a fancy buzz word. Vice President Mike Pence said in a speech at the Pentagon that to meet new threats, “the time has come to establish the United States Space Force.”
Despite the cartoon-sounding name, the U.S. does have military interests in space, namely making sure that key equipment isn’t blown to bits by Chinese missiles like the one tested in 2007 that took out a satellite.
Modern U.S. military technology relies on satellites for key warnings used in missile defense systems, to gather intelligence, to facilitate communication, and to guide precision munitions. An attack on satellites would deal a crippling blow to our military capabilities and is increasingly a real threat as countries like China and Russia seek to undermine existing U.S. technology rather than building costly, but more conventional, assets.
On the other hand, creating a new branch of the military is undoubtedly the sort of expansion of the military-industrial complex that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the country about in 1961 and that lawmakers and Pentagon brass seem to have largely ignored in the ensuing almost seven decades.
The calls for Space Force are no exception. Although the military program might not actually make Americans any safer, it would provide a windfall to the defense industry and, particularly, companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman among others.
As evidenced by their lobbying expenditures, these companies know it. According to nonpartisan watchdog OpenSecrets.org, in 2017 more than $65 million was spent on defense aerospace lobbying and this year more than $35 million has already been spent. Most of those expenditures came from Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and United Technologies — all of which spent more than $6 million each on their efforts. These were also the top four biggest spenders in campaign contributions for aerospace defense.
Although the defense aerospace numbers include not just space operations but also air defense, several of these companies listed space technologies specifically on lobbying disclosure forms as well as support for funding authorization for NASA and other space technology.
Many lobbyists for these companies are also part of the revolving door that swings between industry and the government: A cycle that enriches both companies and lawmakers-turned-lobbyists on tax dollars. Howard “Buck” McKeon, the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, for example, is listed as a lobbyist for the McKeon Group, listed under his wife’s name, earning $50,000 for lobbying on behalf of Lockheed Martin.
This makes sense given that companies like Boeing already make space technology for the Air Force (including the secretive X-37B program). One of those space planes reached the 200-days-in-orbit mark in April 2018 on a classified mission and likely will be headed for more militaristic uses in the future.
Although Space Force may amount to little more than logos on campaign gear or a bureaucratic headache for many, one thing is for sure: More U.S. military interest in space would be a big win for some of the biggest companies in the industry.
