A top Defense Department official Wednesday warned a joint Senate panel against rushing to fund a next-generation rocket engine when parameters and goals for such a project have yet to be established.

“I would say throwing money at a problem (in which) we don’t know where we’re going is not a good idea, either, at this point,” Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) Alan Estevez said during a joint Senate hearing comprised of the Armed Services (SASC) strategic forces subcommittee and the Commerce, Science and Transportation (CST) committee.

A RD-180, which is made in Russia, undergoes hot fire testing. Photo: NASA.
A RD-180, which is made in Russia, undergoes hot fire testing. Photo: NASA.

The Air Force and Congress are investigating the feasibility of domestically-developing a new rocket engine to ease reliance on the Russian-made RD-180, which the Air Force predominantly uses in national security space launches as part of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V rocket. A senior Russian official, Dmitry Rogozin, allegedly threatened to cut off supplies if used in military launches, but Pentagon officials have said business continues as usual.

DoD convened a blue-ribbon panel to study the next-generation engine. The panel found reliance on the Russian engine to be concerning and that that the Pentagon faced both short and long-term impacts from relying on the engine (Defense Daily, May 21). Estevez said it would be roughly five to eight years and $1 billion to $2 billion to have an engine ready for use.

Senators were concerned reliance on the engine could cause delays and disruptions to DoD’s launch manifest. SASC strategic forces subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) thought DoD needed to progress faster toward the new engine, saying “if we don’t have a strategy by now, how long does it take to develop a strategy?

“If this was a private business, and they had a major supplier that they’re no longer finding reliable, they would get busy right now,” Sessions said.

Though Estevez cautioned against rushing toward the new engine, he said DoD wants to eventually get away from the RD-180 after it uses its supply of the engine. Estevez said DoD has 15 engines, with an expected delivery of five more before the end of the year, enough to last through the end of fiscal year 2016. DoD also issued a $40 million reprogramming request to initiate risk reduction activities, Estevez added.

Estevez said the Air Force is conducting an assessment that will be ready around September on what it believes will be the best, most affordable course to pursue within timeframes.

Congress has tried devoting money in fiscal year 2015 toward a next-generation engine, but it has not been warmly received. House appropriators included $220 million for risk reduction and development of an engine to be ready no later than 2022, but the White House is opposed to that, citing an independent study, likely from the Air Force’s blue-ribbon panel, that concluded such a program would cost $1.5 billion with another $3 billion needed to develop such a launch vehicle. The White House also said this approach would prematurely commit significant resources without reducing reliance on Russian engines for at least a decade (Defense Daily, June 18).

A government watchdog who has followed DoD space programs since at least 2008 agreed with Estevez that Congress should slow its rush to funding a new engine. Government Accountability Office (GAO) Director for Acquisition and Sourcing Management Cristina Chaplain also said in her opening remarks that decisions on what type of new program to pursue should be made with a government-wide, including NASA, and a long-term perspective.

“We don’t know what we’re actually pursuing right now,” Chaplain said. “It’s important to first figure out what it is we’re really doing…and have disciplined processes in place.”

In other news, Estevez said he expected Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) to be fully certified to perform Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) missions by late 2014-early 2015. SpaceX recently was certified for its third and final certification launch. It is currently suing the Air Force to force the service to compete its block buy of 36 launch cores from ULA, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].