House Armed Services Committee (HASC) member Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) said Friday the United States should move away from using rocket engines not domestically-made in national security space launches.

“I believe it’s in the interest of our national security that we should shift to American made engines,” Wilson said during Friday’s hearing on the Air Force’s fiscal year 2015 budget request.

United Launch Alliance (ULA), currently the sole provider of U.S. national security space launches as part of the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, uses the RD-180 in its Atlas V launch vehicle, though the Atlas V is not the only EELV rocket. The RD-180 is developed by Russian conglomerate NPO Energomash and is distributed to the U.S. by RD AMROSS, a joint venture of NPO Energomash and United Technologies Corp. [UTX]

ULA's Atlas V launch vehicle uses the Russian made RD-180. Photo: ULA.
ULA’s Atlas V launch vehicle uses the Russian made RD-180. Photo: Air Force.

There are currently no real domestically-made alternatives to the RD-180, which is likely one reason the Air Force is performing a “business case analysis” of how much it would cost to the produce the RD-180 in the United States. A source familiar with rocket engine production lines said the cost to start a production line in the United States to build the RD-180 would run in the hundreds of millions of dollars and could possibly approach $1 billion.

ULA CEO Michael Gass told a Senate panel March 5 the company is capable of co-producing the RD-180 domestically and has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to prove it has the capability to develop the engine in the United States (Defense Daily, March 11). Though the Defense Department’s reliance on a Russian-made engine for critical national security capabilities has long been discussed, the issue resurfaced during the current Ukrainian crisis involving Russia. It is rumored that the Russians could cut off supplies of the RD-180 to the United States in retaliation for potential economic sanctions. Gass testified March 5 the company has more than two years’ worth of RD-180s in stock domestically.

One potential alternative to the RD-180 is the AJ-26 developed by Aerojet Rocketdyne, a division of GenCorp [GY]. But Orbital Sciences [ORB], which is suing ULA, accusing it of illegally blocking Orbital from acquiring the RD-180, said in its lawsuit the AJ-26 is out of production and is in low quantity. Orbital wants access to the RD-180 to compete for its own national security launches (Defense Daily, June 25).

Another potential domestic alternative to the RD-180 is Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s (SpaceX) Merlin engine found in its Falcon 9v1.1 rocket. But SpaceX won’t be available for potential national security launches until fiscal year 2017 at the earliest. Under an agreement between the Air Force and SpaceX, if the company is certified in three launches, it will be eligible to bid for contracts by FY ’15 and possibly perform launches by FY ’17. SpaceX has been certified for one launch and is awaiting potential certification for two other launches. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh testified Friday the service would “probably” certify new entrants.

It was unclear during the hearing whether Wilson went as far to suggest the United States stop procuring the RD-180, though he said Friday that “there are consequences to aggression in Ukraine and aggression in the republic of Georgia.” A spokesperson for Wilson said Friday the congressman suggested exploring U.S. manufactured alternatives to the RD-180 and using the Delta IV rocket more often while finding ways to reduce its cost. Though the Delta IV rocket used for DoD’s heaviest lift needs does not use the RD-180, it is completely made in the United States and, thus, costs more to operate, a source said.

Wilson is not the only lawmaker to suggest the United States examine domestic options to the RD-180. Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) introduced legislation in November that would have the Air Force assess the feasibility of manufacturing an alternative rocket engine in the United States. It would also require an estimate of the cost of manufacturing an alternative engine domestically (Defense Daily, Nov. 15).

ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].