The Pentagon is collaborating with Elon Musk’s company SpaceX to investigate the possibility of using the company’s rockets to drop troops and equipment into global flashpoints.
The military’s work with the private space company covers a wide array of research initiatives, according to a partially redacted research agreement, originally obtained by The Intercept via a Freedom of Information Act request and made public on June 19.
The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (pdf), outlines the joint efforts of the U.S. Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) and SpaceX “to collaboratively investigate commercial space transportation capabilities as a transportation mode to expedite global delivery of Department of Defense (DoD) material and personnel.”
USTRANSCOM is one of the military’s unified combatant commands. It provides for the military’s transportation needs and heavily relies on commercial infrastructure and technologies to carry out its mission of projecting and sustaining military power.
There is a growing trend among military projects to tap commercial-first space technologies in order to convert them to military use at a much smaller cost than if the military were to research and develop its own technologies from the ground up.
Among the hoped-for outcomes of the research agreement is a rocket-based “quick reaction force,” which would place troops or equipment anywhere in the world on short notice by leveraging SpaceX’s Starship, a fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch vehicle that is currently in development.
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