For the development of military capabilities in space, contests beat contracts.
For the development of military capabilities in space, contests beat contracts.
T he Air Force Research Laboratory is launching a $30 million initiative, tapping the private sector to accelerate the development and acquisition of technologies for future Space Force operations concerning the Moon. Dubbed Cislunar Prime, the program will use a system of 15 prize contracts, worth $2 million each, to develop weapons systems in the vast orbital region between Earth and the Moon.
“Space is often described as hard and difficult and a fight that we’re not seeing,” General Stephen Purdy told a space-industry conference when launching the program. “But I would characterize cislunar as even harder and more difficult, and we really don’t see what’s going on in that arena.” The general cited President Trump’s December 2025 executive order while emphasizing the importance of military operations in cislunar space, as well as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine’s citing it as a “warfighting domain” in September.
These are great first steps in increasing America’s ability to quickly mobilize private industry to fight and win coming wars in space. Procurement tactics of private prizes cooperating with industry, like Cislunar Prime, offer the government the most bang possible for the taxpayers’ buck. America’s hugely successful unmanned ground vehicle program arose out of a 2004 private prize system, for example.
Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean in pursuit of the privately funded Orteig prize, valued at almost $481,000 in today’s money. Aerospace experts estimated that a $10 billion prize for sending a crew to Mars and returning it safely to Earth could lead to a successful landing. That would be a bargain compared with the $500 billion at which NASA values that objective. Private companies just do it better.
“We’re looking for existing commercial or near-commercial means, non-developmental solutions, hardware with actual relevant evidence behind it, software that doesn’t need a huge amount of work . . . and ground systems,” Purdy continued. “This isn’t a four- or five-year science project. This is about getting capability out soon.” Time is of the essence in this new space race, and the SLS has a long history of its schedule slipping.
The need to quickly scale military capabilities in orbit is why the Pentagon activated its Commercial Space Reserve. Modeled on the military’s Civil Reserve Air Fleet, which mobilizes commercial aircraft during emergencies, this new program aims to give the Pentagon rapid access to additional commercial space capabilities if needed. Space Force is creating the legal ability to call on the burgeoning private space industry in a crisis, just as the Air Force has the legal right to call on airlines.
Prizes are the fastest way to mobilize the private sector for conflict in outer space, pulling in underappreciated or capitalized talent as they reward results while traditional contracts reward slow-moving incumbents.
Existing government-run space procurement programs have problems baked into their very design. To achieve political buy-in, NASA built the Space Launch System (SLS) in a manner that essentially bought off every political group involved in space exploration. It was effectively designed by a committee to maximize political efficiency, with contractors spread across all 50 states.
SLS took eleven years and $41 billion to develop from its official inception to its first launch. This is an inherent feature of government contracting: prioritizing political payoffs to constituents over achieving the mission. America no longer has the time or money to tolerate that kind of delay.
Military actions against Iran in Operation Epic Fury decisively proved that, if America desires peace on earth, it must prepare for war in space. Space dominance played a pivotal role in the success of the early strikes against Iran, encompassing a network of satellites for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), Global Positioning System (GPS), communications, electronic warfare, and missile-warning systems.
If America wants to win the latest military space race with China and Russia, we need to continue incentivizing a free-market reform of our government-run space program. Cislunar Prime is hopefully one of many such efforts.