SASC Chairman John McCain Urges Air Force Secretary to Address Russia’s Role in National Security Space Program
“Contrary to the estimates you provided to me in private, I am left to conclude that your decision to publicly cite a figure as high as $5 billion was done so to obfuscate efforts to responsibly transition off of the RD-180 before the end of the decade,” writes Chairman McCain. “I invite you to clarify the record in the context of proposals actually being considered by the committee While you chose to selectively omit the [Department of Defense Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (CAPE)] assessment in your response, we have since been briefed by the CAPE and have been provided with compelling analysis demonstrating cost implications that are starkly different from what you stated in your testimony. In fact, according to CAPE, the cost of meeting assured access to space requirements without the use of Russian rocket engines could be similar to what we pay today.”
Earlier RD-180 posts

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5 replies on “McCain Calls B.S. On USAF RD-180 Data”

  1. Besides the question of the cost actually saved by using Russian engines, McCain asks a number of understandable questions, i.e.
    “Are Russian personnel sequestered from USAF and ULA employees during the actual launch process?” (They are, but obviously they have to have access to some information regarding the launch in order to support it.) However it seems a little late to be bringing up these concerns. These procedures have been in place since the start of the Atlas V program and there have not been any reports of a significant intelligence compromise.

  4. only five billion dollars? those optimistic hilltop politicians, they are the same people that estimated the cost of the F35 and the SLS. Take the cost estimate and multiply it by at least five and you may be close. Government is a cash cow and every contractor treats it as such.

  5. I have an idea that there is someone reluctant to have dinner with the Senator in the future.

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