Elon Musk takes aim at ULA, says parent company Lockheed 'darkened the skies with lobbyists'
Musk claimed ULA would be 'dead as a doornail' without government contracts
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SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is continuing his criticism of the United Launch Association for accepting government money.
Musk's criticism came in a Wednesday tweet when he responded to a comment from ULA President and CEO Tony Bruno, who suggested that ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket could compete with SpaceX's reusable rockets.
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"ULA would be dead as a doornail without the two launch provider DoD requirement," Musk tweeted, referencing an Air Force contract called the EELV Launch Capability (ELC) payment worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
Musk continued: "If this is not true, then you won’t have a problem removing it. Your parent company, Lockheed, darkened the skies with lobbyists to ensure F-35 was single source."
ULA had accepted multiple ELC contracts until the payment was discontinued in 2019 when the Air Force said it would start awarding funds to commercial companies, according to SpaceNews.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin Space own ULA in a 50-50 joint venture.
The Tesla CEO claimed that while "this sort of nonsense happens all the time with government contracts … in this case, it is money diverted from making life multiplanetary, which is the goal of SpaceX, vs the ULA goal of maximizing dividends to Lockheed & Boeing."
Musk has previously condemned ULA's acceptance of the contract as anticompetitive since the Air Force did not award the contract to commcerical companies, though Bruno denies his claim.
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"Competition is healthy for the industry and customers," Bruno responded. "Our Nation is better off for having the broader industrial base we now enjoy as a result. I congratulate you on your considerable accomplishments. We are also proud of ours."
In 2014, SpaceX sued the Air Force over its contract given solely to ULA; the two entities reached a settlement in 2015.