United Launch Alliance (ULA) won’t bid for the Air Force’s Global Positioning System III (GPS III) launch unless it gets permission to acquire additional Russian-developed RD-180s, the company’s CEO said Friday.

“In order to bid on GPS, legally, I have to have an engine,” Tory Bruno told reporters during a teleconference celebrating ULA’s 100th mission. “I can get it legislatively or I can get it through the waiver process.”

Bruno said on Twitter after the teleconference that the fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is still in effect until the FY ’16 defense authorization bill is signed into law. The FY ’15 NDAA bans awarding, or renewing, contracts property or services involving Russian rocket engines. ULA’s primary national security launch vehicle, the Atlas V, is powered by the RD-180.

Artist's illustration of a GPS III satellite. Image: Lockheed Martin.
Artist’s illustration of a GPS III satellite. Image: Lockheed Martin.

A continuing resolution (CR) was passed Sept. 30 to keep the federal government functioning through December. A reconciled version of the FY ’16 defense authorization bill that allows ULA to acquire nine additional RD-180s passed the house Thursday. Bruno said Friday this wasn’t enough.

Another provision in the FY ’15 NDAA allows the defense secretary to enact a waiver to acquire Russian rocket engines if he or she certifies to Congress that it is necessary for national security interests and such services or capabilities could not be obtained at a fair and reasonable price without the use of Russian rocket engines.

Bruno’s declaration is a warning to the Defense Department that it might not get the space launch competition it desires without either it or Congress acquiescing to ULA’s request for more RD-180s. DoD had been hoping all summer that Congress would provide ULA with enough RD-180s to absolve it from enacting a waiver while facilitating GPS competition. Though ULA currently has two launch vehicles, the Atlas V and the Delta IV, it plans to retire the Delta IV due to cost competitiveness issues in the 2018-2019 timeframe.

“It is critical to the Air Force that we get more than one bidder. We are actively working in different ways to make it possible for ULA to bid,” Claire Leon, director of the Launch Enterprise Directorate at Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command, said during a conference call with reporters on Friday.

United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle uses the Russian RD-180 engine. Photo: Air Force.
United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V launch vehicle uses the Russian RD-180 engine. Photo: Air Force.

Leon said, “The whole purpose of competition is to reduce cost and get companies to operate at their lowest price point possible.” Pricing for the block buy was in the $140 million range depending on the configuration, so the competitive price is expected to be below that, she said.

Leon noted three ways ULA could bid on the proposal: reallocate the “five golden engines” (RD-180s) the FY ’15 NDAA allows them to use but are scheduled for other missions, get access to more engines through the FY ’16 NDAA if the conferences version passes soon, “or they can request a waiver in their submittal and that would give us the ammunition to go to the secretary of defense to request a waiver.”

“We’re working with our leadership on processing a waiver–it’s just not guaranteed at this point in time,” Leon said.  

The GPS III launch is slated for roughly May 2018, according to the Air Force’s request for proposals (RFP) posted on Federal Business Opportunities (FBO), and bids are due Nov. 16, giving DoD a short window to enact a waiver. DoD spokeswoman Maureen Schumann said Friday she would be unable to respond to a request for comment by press time.

ULA, along with Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), are the only two likely bidders for the GPS III launch. SpaceX spokesman John Taylor said Thursday the company applauds the Air Force for introducing competition into the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, which is DoD’s space launch program. Industry sources told Defense Daily they expect SpaceX to bid for the GPS III launch.

Several technical factors will help the Air Force determine who will win the competition, including orbital accuracy, mass to orbit, schedule credibility, and price.

Dr. Claire Leon, Director of the Launch Enterprise Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command. Photo: U.S. Air Force.
Claire Leon, Director of the Launch Enterprise Directorate, Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Space Command. Photo: U.S. Air Force.

The schedule needs to match the requirements, “but we also intend to evaluate, as a go-no-go kind of criteria, whether or not we believe they can actually meet that schedule based on past performance,” Leon said

The RFP also does not explain which GPS item number it is for because the Air Force wants to makes sure to it uses what makes sense at the time. “We purposefully did not designate the name. We’d like to have flexibility,” Leon said.

The contract award date is nominally set for March 2016, four months after proposals are due, Leon added.