The Air Force vowed to scrub a launch competition between fiscal years 2018 and 2022 if it does not get legislative relief allowing a contractor to bid using the Russian-developed RD-180, service Secretary Deborah James said Wednesday.
James told a Senate panel that the Air Force would rather restrict competition than restrict assured access to space. She proposed that Congress allow launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) to compete with RD-180s that were ordered, but not fully paid for, before the Russian invasion of Crimea. The FY ’15 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bans the awarding or renewal of contracts for the RD-180 unless they were either fully paid for or covered by a legally binding commitment of the contractor before Feb. 1, 2014, roughly the date Russia invaded Crimea.
The Air Force wants congressional permission for ULA to go from five to 18 RD-180s available to compete for a potential total of 34 launches through FY ’22. James said the Air Force would compete nine launches from FYs ’15-’17 and 20 launches from ’18-’22.
The FY ’15 NDAA requires the Air Force to have a new domestic rocket engine ready by FY ’19. James said the service might not make that deadline and that it could have a new rocket engine developed by 2019, but not integrated, tested and certified until potentially 2020-2021. Allowing additional RD-180s to be used would allow the Air Force and future anticipated launch competitors like ULA and Blue Origin’s Vulcan launch system to compete for launches beyond 2019. Other potential competitors could include GenCorp’s [GY] Aerojet Rocketdyne and possibly Orbital ATK [OA].
ULA will be retiring the Delta IV launch vehicle 2018-2019 time frame because company CEO Tory Bruno said it wouldn’t be cost competitive on an open market at a price tag of $400 million to $600 million per launch (Defense Daily, Feb. 25). The Air Force and lawmakers have been working for years to infuse competition into the launch market, which has, until recently, been dominated by only one provider: ULA.
If ULA retires the Delta IV and is not able to compete with RD-180s, that leaves eventual new entrant Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) and its Falcon 9 rocket as the only certified competitor for launches in the short term. James said SpaceX was on path for Air Force certification by June.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told James during a Senate Armed Services (SASC) strategic forces subcommittee hearing that the options available seemed to be either having not using the RD-180 for competition, having competition or having assured access to space, but the Air Force couldn’t have all three.
“It’s a hard problem,” James replied.
SASC Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), a long-time critic of the Air Force’s use of the RD-180, vowed to “do something” during the crafting of the FY ’16 defense authorization bill to fix what he called the “disgraceful situation” of the Air Force not having alternatives to buying additional RD-180s through 2019. McCain is critical of how the developer of the RD-180, NPO Energomash, has set up its U.S. distribution network to include a middle-man known as RD AMROSS, which he alleges inflates prices to enrich Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and partners while funding Russian aggression in eastern Europe.
The Air Force is required by law to have two available launch providers to assure access to space. Without an additional certified provider, the scenario could be a false competition of the Delta IV versus the Falcon 9. Though it would charge much more for military launches, SpaceX has a Falcon 9 commercial price of $61 million for up to 4.85 metric tons (mT) to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
RD AMROSS is a joint venture of NPO Energomash and Pratt & Whitney of United Technologies Corp. [UTX] ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].