Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) introduced legislation Tuesday requiring the Defense Department to report to Congress on its use of the Russian RD-180 rocket engine in national security launches.
The bill requires an assessment of the feasibility of manufacturing an alternative rocket engine in the United States. It also requires an estimate of the cost of manufacturing an alternative rocket engine in the United States, including any cost savings that manufacturing a domestic alternative provides compared to buying Russian engines over the life of the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, which is used to assure the federal government access to space. The bill would finally require a description of policy benefits and policy concerns related to where the rocket engine is manufactured.
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| The historic launch of Orbital’s Antares vehicle in April used Aerojet’s dual AJ-26 engine. Photo: Aerojet. |
The RD-180 is manufactured by RD AMROSS, a joint venture of United Technologies Corp.’s [UTX] Pratt & Whitney and NPO Energomash. The RD-180 is controversial as Orbital Sciences [ORB] in June sued United Launch Alliance (ULA) and RD AMROSS in U.S. District Court alleging anti-competitive practices restricting the company from accessing the RD-180 engine. Orbital views access to the RD-180 as critical to breaking into, and competing, in the medium-lift launch market, which ULA currently hold a monopoly on.
Aerojet Rocketdyne, a division of GenCorp [GY], produces the AJ-26, which is considered to be an alternative to the RD-180, but Orbital said the AJ-26 is out of production and is in low quantity. Orbital currently relies on the AJ-26 for medium-lift launches.
Orbital alleged in its suit ULA let an exclusivity agreement with RD AMROSS expire two-and-a-half years before renewing it in 2010 in a direct reaction to Orbital’s attempts to compete in the medium-lift market, in which Orbital uses its Antares launch vehicle. Orbital said in its lawsuit ULA and RD AMROSS had a 10-year exclusive agreement from 1996 through 2006. Orbital said after a conference call with RD AMROSS and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne to consider the sale was attended by ULA President and CEO Michael Gass, RD AMROSS backed out (Defense Daily, Sept. 6).
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is also investigating the alleged anti-competitive practices on the part of ULA and RD AMROSS (Defense Daily, June 14). ULA is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Boeing [BA].