The U.S. Department of defense will switch to rocket engines of the US, but wish to purchase the RD-180
Dmitry Zlatarev. The U.S. Department of defense confirmed the appeal of the Secretary of defense Ashton Carter to the Senate with a petition to allow the purchase of Russian rocket engines RD-180, but the military ultimately aimed at the development of their own unique in this area, told Last news in the American war office.
before Wednesday, the Agency was notified about the fact that the American head of the Ministry of defense Ashton Carter and the Director of national intelligence James Clapper had sent to the Senate a letter of appeal to allow American companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing to use in their products " additional RD-180.
"We can assure you that such letter was aimed. It reported on our serious efforts to transition to RD-180 engines to the us production ", - told in the press service of the Pentagon.
According to media reports, Carter and Clapper urged senators to change the law so that the American Corporation has received additional access to Russian rocket engines. According to their statements, this will allow the Pentagon to get a " assured access to space ".
The RD-180 used in the first stage of American Atlas missile and as long as the U.S. industry does not produce analogues. Before Congress because of the events around Ukraine banned the use of RD-180 for new contracts for government launches, and has allocated 220 million dollars to help in the creation of new American engines.
in March, the US announced that it would hold a tender for space launches in connection with the planned abandonment of the Russian rocket engines RD-180. The competition will be conducted in 28 starts, which is expected to produce in the years 2020-2024.