Since money is what motivates the military-industrial complex, we only need to decide that all future telescopes will be built by armaments manufacturers, because after all the aliens could be planning a preemptive strike. Then all sorts of senators, lobbyists, etc. will be trying constantly to increase telescope spending.

What you're describing is actually a brilliant approach for increasing NASA budgets. Simply put, make astronomy a matter of national security. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securitization_(international_...