US Air Force holds hypersonic resupply site review amid seabird concerns

Red-tailed tropicbirds stymie Johnston Atoll maneuvers

The US Air Force is putting plans to use rocket landings for resupply missions on hold over environmental concerns about the effect they would have on local seabirds.

First announced in the Federal Register in March, the plan called for using hypersonic rockets to bring in up to 100 tons of vital supplies like food, ammunition, and replacement parts to soldiers much faster than using traditional aircraft missions. These suborbital vehicles would deliver cargo to prepared landing pads at remote sites, with SpaceX and Blue Origin as potential providers.

"Rapid logistics underpins our ability to project power," said retired Gen. Arnold Bunch Jr., then commander of Air Force Materiel Command, when the idea was first mooted.

The site picked for testing was Johnston Atoll, an island in the North Pacific. The site made geopolitical sense, offering a forward logistics node to mitigate the severe supply challenges of any Asia–Pacific contingency against near-peer competitors such as China.

But Johnston Atoll is the principal breeding ground for the red-tailed tropicbird, among other species, and environmental groups objected.

"Landing massive rockets in one of the most isolated and valuable habitats for seabirds would be as destructive and irresponsible as it sounds," said Maxx Phillips, Hawaii and Pacific Islands director at the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued the government to get access to records related to the plan.

"This project threatens to destroy a site that millions of seabirds need for nesting and overwintering, all in the name of military logistics and Elon Musk’s profit," he said.

Those objections seem to have worked, for now.

"The Department of the Air Force has elected to hold the preparation of the Johnston Atoll Environmental Assessment for a proposed rocket cargo landing demonstration on Johnston Atoll in abeyance while the service explores alternative options for implementation of the rocket cargo Vanguard program at a location other than Johnston Atoll," an Air Force spokesperson told The Register.

"A notification will be published via the Federal Register if the DAF decides to restart the action or ultimately cancel the Environmental Assessment."

The Air Force had also considered Kwajalein Atoll, Midway Island, and Wake Island, each home to ongoing US military operations, as potential landing-pad sites, the Department of Defense's newspaper Stars and Stripes reports.®