House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) plan to introduce bills repealing a provision in the fiscal year 2016 appropriations bill signed into law that repealed caps on RD-180 purchases levied in the FY ’16 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The FY ’16 appropriations bill that was signed into law says a contract award for Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) services may be made to a launch service provider competing with any certified launch vehicle in its inventory, regardless of the country of origin of the rocket engine that will be used on its launch vehicle. The FY ’16 NDAA allowed the Defense Department to purchase up to nine additional RD-180s. The fiscal year 2015 NDAA banned DoD from awarding or renewing contracts for RD-180s unless those engines were part of the 2013 “block buy” or either fully paid for or covered by a legally binding agreement before February 2014, which is when Russia invaded Crimea.
McCarthy spokesman Matt Sparks said the congressman would introduce his bill Jan. 28. McCain spokeswoman Rachael Dean said the senator’s bill was introduced Jan. 27. United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA], uses the RD-180 in its Atlas V launch vehicle.
McCarthy said in a joint statement with McCain that placing such a critical aspect of the United States’ future in the hands of a country that names the United States as a threat, ostensibly Russia, is not only foolish, “it undermines the ingenuity happening across the country.” McCarthy’s district includes Edwards AFB and Mojave, which is called home by a number of “new space” companies like Virgin Galactic, XCOR [XCOR] and Scaled Composites, a division of Northrop Grumman [NOC] involved in the Stratolaunch project.
McCain threatened an unrestricted ban on the RD-180 during a December Senate floor speech after the appropriations bill, which he called “take it or leave it,” was introduced with its provision rescinding his RD-180 caps. Dean, the McCain spokeswoman, said SASC will continue to consider an unrestricted prohibition as circumstances evolve. McCain said Jan. 27 in his opening statement for a SASC hearing on RD-180 that he wanted an outright ban on the engine in the FY ’16 authorization bill.
Both Air Force Secretary Deborah James and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) Frank Kendall called on SASC to lift its restriction requiring DoD money to be spent on a new rocket engine as opposed to a new launch system, which DoD prefers. James said the Air Force has obligated just over $176 million toward a new rocket engine, which she said includes $41 million reprogrammed in FY ’14 and $220 million appropriated in FY ’15. She said the balance would be obligated “soon,” pending successful negotiations with industry.
James also said she asked her legal team to review potential penalties for ULA after it declined to bid for the first competitive launch in almost a decade, a Global Positioning System III (GPS III) mission. These options, she said, include early termination of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Capability (ELC) to ULA, which the Air Force planned to modify anyway.
Both James and Kendall said they were surprised and disappointed that ULA did not bid for the GPS III mission, considering how the ELC is taxpayer money. ULA at the time said it legally wasn’t able to bid for the mission as the appropriations bill that lifted the RD-180 restrictions wasn’t passed until after bids were due. McCain said during the hearing that the ELC, which was created in an era when ULA was the only certified launch provider, costs $800 million per year. Previous estimates had the ELC valued at roughly $1 billion.