A small cog in US military machine

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Before the first rocket took off from Mahia two years ago, MPs considered whether they should clarify that New Zealand’s new space industry would be strictly for peaceful purposes.

Politicians from across the spectrum championed the proposed law enabling rocket launches and welcomed the new era of high-tech business and scientific research that was about to begin. But as Ollie Neas writing for The Spinoff this week reveals, some MPs noticed a problem. Much of the technology central to space launches — from the rockets themselves to the payloads they carried — could be used to support military activities.

“The intention is with this legislation that it be non-military,” said Labour MP David Parker, who a year later became the Minister responsible for New Zealand’s space regime.

But as MPs reassured themselves of the law’s peaceful intent, government officials were already considering requests for launches in potential contravention of that.

Ministerial briefings show that the Government — first National, and now the Labour coalition — has been planning for launches on behalf of US military agencies. Meanwhile, officials have warned of the likely pushback if the public learned of the true nature of these activities.

Because of this risk, officials advised the Government to develop a joint communications strategy with Rocket Lab around US government payloads, highlighting the benefits to New Zealand and limiting public disclosure of the details. It’s disappointing to see local news media has become a regular mouthpiece for that communications strategy.

Of course, two years on Mahia has emerged as an established launch site for US military clients, with the majority of launches so far carrying payloads for the US Department of Defense. These launches are set to continue and seem likely to include launches for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), one of the most important US military agencies.

The fact that Rocket Lab is running a mission for the Special Operations Command called “Make It Rain” is incredibly ominous. One of the documents leaked by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden in 2013 is a top secret memo marked “RAINFALL” from August 2012. The document explains that NRO uses “cover stories” to sanitise the purpose of their deployments and facilities, and that the fact they use covers stories should be Top Secret. For example, the document refers to the Pine Gap spy base in Australia and says the cover story will be that there is no official connection between Pine Gap and the NRO, and then goes on to list all the ways Pine Gap is associated with the NRO, NSA and CIA.

Two launches have carried payloads for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the Pentagon agency that conducts cutting-edge research for the US military. A third was for the US Air Force and US Army Space and Missile Defense Command. A recently announced fifth launch will carry a payload for US Special Operations Command, a wing of the US Department of Defense that undertakes covert missions around the world.

Professor Kevin Clements of the University of Otago suggests we can’t have confidence that the US has got our interests at heart. As Rocket Lab puts up payloads that are useful for surveillance and communications for the military, he suggests we’re becoming a small cog in a big machine over which we have very little control.

The Space Agency’s own advice to our politicians proposes one significant risk to the current launch programme and its associated PR campaign: “Even a single protestor could have a disproportionate effect on space launch activities from New Zealand”, one briefing says. “This risk can be managed, but only to an extent.”