Synopsis "Military Space Launch and the Use of Russian-Made Rocket Engines"
With Russia and China aggressively weaponizing space, we can no longer take for granted the relative peace we have enjoyed in space for nearly 60 years. Both Russia and China are pursuing unprecedented counter-space programs and investing robust resources to challenge United States superiority in space. Russia and China are testing and investing in anti-satellite weapons, including direct assent missiles, ground-based lasers, and satellite jammers. To respond to these provocations, the Defense Department is investing $5 billion and reviewing nearly every facet of the way we operate in space and utilize our space-based capabilities. In stark contrast to the reviews underway for satellites already in space, the Department appears less interested in rapidly addressing our most immediate threat, our reliance on Russian-made rocket engines. Today Russia holds many of our most precious national security satellites at risk before they ever get off the ground. Yet the Department of Defense has actively sought to undermine, with the support of the United Launch Alliance, ULA, [any attempts] to limit that risk and end the use of the Russian-made RD-180 by the end of this decade. The Department of Defense first allowed the use of Russian-made engines in 1995. Even then, Secretary of Defense Bill Perry recognized the inherent risks and made domestic production within 4 years a condition for using the RD-180. That was back in 1995. Yet 20 years later, after numerous stalling efforts rooted in corporate greed and naive assertions of defense cooperation with Russia, little progress has been made in limiting the influence of Russia on space launch. At every turn, the Air Force and ULA [United Launch Alliance] have replied with stalling tactics, stale arguments, and suspect assertions.
