An early morning Wednesday, last-minute amendment from Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) kept strong restrictions on the national security waiver available to the Defense Department to use RD-180s beyond ones already paid for in the 2013 “block buy.”
The House Armed Services (HASC) strategic forces subcommittee bill language approved in the subcommittee in April removed the Section 1608 fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) waiver language requiring that, in order to procure additional RD-180s, DoD certification that space launch services could not be obtained at a fair and reasonable price without the use of rocket engines designed or manufactured in the Russian Federation. 
The subcommittee language only required the waiver be necessary in the national interests of the United States. Hunter’s amendment, approved in the full HASC markup en bloc, re-inserted the strong language from the FY ’15 NDAA.
“The fact that we are relying on Russia for space launch capability is insane,” Hunter said Wednesday in an emailed statement. “Our own supply chain should be producing the motors that serve our national security needs. Instead, we are lining (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s pockets at the expense of our own security and capability.”
The Hunter amendment could be considered a loss for the Air Force and a win for eventual military space launch provider Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX). The Air Force wants permission for incumbent launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) to procure additional RD-180s so that the service can hold a competition for national security space launches as part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program. With the restrictions placed on procuring additional RD-180s and ULA planning to retire the Delta IV, ULA might not have a rocket to compete with, leaving ULA with a possible monopoly on future military launches.
Air Force brass has been asking lawmakers for clarification and possible relief of the FY ’15 NDAA language, saying that a strict interpretation would minimize the number of launches ULA could compete for. But the service hasn’t discussed the role of the waiver and whether, or not, it planned to use it to facilitate launch competitions.
A key Air Force official on Wednesday clarified the service’s thinking regarding the waiver. Assistant Air Force Secretary for Acquisition Maj. Gen. Roger Teague said at an event in Washington that the service has looked very closely at the requirements needed for a waiver, but because the Air Force plans its launch services two years in advance, trying to address a waiver on a “mission by mission” basis was not feasible.
“We’ve got to be able to ensure that (we have) a competitive market and we’ll be able to plan accordingly for each of those missions in the out years,” Teague said at a Washington Space Business Roundtable (WSBR) lunch.
Although the FY ’15 NDAA waiver language specifically says the defense secretary may waive the prohibition on procuring additional RD-180s, DoD said the language does not set forth any specific procedures as to how to process or request a waiver.
“Nothing precludes delegation of a waiver authority below the level of the Secretary of Defense,” DoD spokesman Maureen Schumann said in a Wednesday email. “There are also no limitations in the law on who can request a waiver or whether a waiver even needs to be requested before it can be granted.”
The House is expected to take up the FY ’16 defense authorization bill later this month. ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].