U.S. Air Force Awards Blue Origin and Anduril Small Study Contracts for Potential Military Cargo Transport Revolution with Reusable Rockets

The United States Air Force has awarded new study contracts worth $1.37 million to Blue Origin and $1 million to defense startup Anduril, marking their entry into potential military cargo transportation using advanced technology, including rockets. These contracts are part of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s Rocket Experimentation for Global Agile Logistics (REGAL) program, an initiative aimed at exploring delivery via orbital transport.

The Air Force aims to procure these capabilities through service-type contracts similar to those used with commercial airlines. The REGAL program focuses on rapid deliveries to remote or hard-to-reach locations within an hour using commercially reusable rockets, reentry systems, and cargo transportation systems.

Blue Origin’s contract involves studying the potential use of their technology for point-to-point material transportation, with the work being performed at Merritt Island, Florida, where Blue Origin is developing its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. On the other hand, Anduril’s contract focuses on designing a reentry container capable of carrying between 5 and 10 tons of payload from Earth and back. This container must be compatible with various rockets and propose a thermal protection system.

The challenges associated with reentry make it a complex issue in spaceflight, requiring materials that can survive atmospheric reentry and containers that preserve the contents’ integrity. Companies like Varda Space Industries have developed reentry capsules for in-space manufacturing, while SpaceX’s Dragon capsule returns cargo and astronauts from the International Space Station. However, the number of vendors capable of delivering this capability is limited.

This development follows Rocket Lab’s earlier this year REGAL contract announcement, which includes a flight demonstration step, though further details have yet to be disclosed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. If successful, these rocket cargo services could potentially enable the Pentagon to purchase “delivery as a service,” with large loads transported via commercial heavy rockets and returning to Earth in reusable capsules for quick offload. Long-term goals may even include point-to-point transportation of humans.