A top Air Force official said this week that the United States need to consider ending its reliance on the Russian-built rocket engines used to launch Pentagon satellites, according to Bloomberg News.
Though the Russian engine "has served us well, current uncertainty highlights the need to consider other options for assured access to space," Gen. William Shelton, commander of the Air Force Space Command, said in remarks prepared for a Senate hearing on July 16.
Shelton warned the Senate that developing a replacement would likely be a multiyear effort requiring "significant congressional support to maintain adequate funding," according to Bloomberg News.
The Obama administration has said a substitute could cost as much as $4.5 billion and take eight years to complete.
"We simply cannot rely on the vicissitudes of a foreign supplier in a foreign nation for our national security," Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee, said at the start of the hearing, according to Bloomberg.
Russian RD-180 engines power Atlas V rockets made by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co.
The U.S. turned to Russian engines after the end of the Soviet Union, because of their lower cost and good quality, according to lawmakers.
By purchasing the technology, the U.S. also hoped to keep it out of "enemy hands," according to Bloomberg.
The engine "is the most critical foreign component in terms of cost, schedule, and the technical difficulty of developing an alternative engine source," Yool Kim, a senior engineer at Rand Corp., said in prepared testimony for the joint hearing of the Commerce panel and an Armed Services subcommittee.
Back in April, Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which has its own U.S.-made rocket engine, sued the Air Force to be allowed to compete for a share of the $67.6 billion Pentagon satellite launch market.
So what do you think the U.S. should do?
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