WASHINGTON : The Pentagon views public-private partnerships as the best way to end U.S. reliance on Russian rocket engines, and plans to award contracts for such arrangements in fiscal 2017, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said in a letter obtained by Reuters.
Work told Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain in the letter dated Jan. 26 it was unrealistic to transition completely away from the Russian RD-180 engines that power the Atlas 5 rocket built by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, before 2021 or 2022.
The government might still need to use the Russian engines for some launches, and could use sole-source allocation of some launches to ULA to ensure that the U.S. government maintained two viable sources of launch services, Work said.
He said the department would issue a draft request for proposals in the next few months, and the Pentagon's fiscal 2017 budget proposal would include funding for the initiative.
Work told Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain in the letter dated Jan. 26 it was unrealistic to transition completely away from the Russian RD-180 engines that power the Atlas 5 rocket built by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, before 2021 or 2022.
The government might still need to use the Russian engines for some launches, and could use sole-source allocation of some launches to ULA to ensure that the U.S. government maintained two viable sources of launch services, Work said.
He said the department would issue a draft request for proposals in the next few months, and the Pentagon's fiscal 2017 budget proposal would include funding for the initiative.
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