U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told Democratic senators that he shared security concerns about Musk's reported contacts with Russian leaders, but added that there was enough competition in the Pentagon's space program to prevent overreliance on Musk's SpaceX.
“The Air Force takes security issues very seriously, and I share your concerns,” Kendall wrote in a Dec. 13 letter to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed and obtained by Bloomberg News.
Senators sent a letter to Kendall last month expressing concerns about a report in October. The report stated that Musk "had multiple high-level conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as 2022 and has maintained contact with high-level Russian officials such as Sergey Kiriyenko."