“We’re putting too many eggs in one company’s basket when it comes to our space assets,” said Cramer, a North Dakota Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Cramer spoke after receiving a briefing from Air Force Secretary Troy Meink about Starshield, SpaceX’s military satellite service built on technology used for Starlink. The briefing followed reports that capabilities were recently slowed in the Russia-Ukraine war theater, disrupting a service Ukraine relied on. Cramer said he was unsure whether Musk ordered the slowdown and that responsibility among multiple people remained unclear.

“I don’t think it could have possibly happened without Elon Musk’s knowledge,” Cramer said, while adding that it was not clear how supportive Musk was. He also suggested U.S. officials and SpaceX may have broadly misunderstood Ukraine’s dependence on the technology.

The episode has intensified questions about how much control a private company and its owner should have over communications infrastructure used in a war. Cramer said the events raised concerns beyond cost, including the possibility that the military could become locked into a single vendor.

He urged Congress and the Pentagon to invest in competition for both satellite manufacturing and launches. The operation of systems such as Starshield, he said, should be under the authority of the U.S. government.

“There are certain things the government has to do that can’t be so dependent on others,” Cramer said. “And fighting wars is one of those things.”