Kendall ‘Open-Minded’ On Sharing RD-180 Replacement Costs

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http://breakingdefense.com/2015/08/kendall-open-minded-on-sharing-rd-180-replacement-costs/



Russian-made RD-180 engines propel an Atlas V rocket heavenward.

Kendall ‘Open-Minded’ On Sharing RD-180 Replacement Costs
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on August 12, 2015 at 8:59 PM

HUNTSVILLE, ALA.: American ingenuity can absolutely build a rocket engine to replace the Russian-made RD-180, the Pentagon’s top buyer said today. The wide-open questions are: how soon can they do it; and how much will the Pentagon have to pay.

“The big problem isn’t the technology, it’s the time,” Frank Kendall told reporters at the Space & Missile Defense conference here. Congress wants the US military to stop relying on imported Russian rocket engines by 2019, he said, but “that’s pretty ambitious. I think 2021 or ’22 is probably more realistic.”

Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is likely to have something to say about that. He has made it crystal clear that he wants the replacement by 2019 and doesn’t really care if it’s hard or not. McCain is furious with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and takes pride in the fact that he’s been personally sanctioned by Vladimir Putin’s regime.

On top of the debate about how fast can the new engine be built, there’s the cost-sharing question. “The approach we would prefer, rather than just paying for new engine development, is to help someone close their business case (for) providing launch services,” Kendall said. In other words, could an infusion of Defense Department dollars or a promise of Pentagon business give companies enough incentive to develop a rocket engine where the return on investment would otherwise be too low?