ULA/PWR社、RD-180の米国国産化検討を終了した模様

NASA Spaceflight - L2 forum(9/2)
ULA社のニュースレターがL2フォーラムに転載されています。これによると、昨今の商業打上げ需要の低下を受け、PWRにRD-180の国産化ラインを新設する検討はこれ以上実施しない模様。基本的にはロシアから購入を続け、万一なくなってもULAとしてはDelta 4で打上げられるので問題ない、ということのようです。以下に全文を引用します。

RD-180 Co-Production Successfully Concluded

After close coordination with our U.S. Air Force customer, the RD-180 engine co-production program was concluded this July. The Air Force recommended to the Department of Defense (DoD) continued use of the RD-180 engine on the Atlas V vehicle without a full U.S. production facility. ULA will continue to supply sufficient RD-180 inventories to ensure access to space for our customer and the nation.
During an appreciation dinner July 31 in West Palm Beach, Fla., Atlas Propulsion Director Greg Pech delivered words of thanks and praise to a group of RDAMROSS and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) employees as the RD-180 coproduction program successfully came to a close. RD-180 Program Manager Broc Cote was also in attendance, along with leaders from PWR and RDAMROSS, and ULA resident team members Tom Casey, Curt Ingram and J.R.Michalowski who have overseen co-production activities in West Palm Beach since the program’s inception in 1997.
The conclusion of RD-180 co-production represents a significant strategic accomplishment for ULA and the U.S. Air Force in satisfying the Department of Defense (DoD) Policy for Use of Former Soviet Union (FSU) Propulsion Systems, which was established in 1995 to ensure that U.S. access to space would not be vulnerable to delays or supply interruptions. An agreement was reached in 1997 between NPO Energomash, United Technologies Corporation, Lockheed Martin, RDAMROSS and the Russian Space Agency to support co-production in the United States. The following year, The Engineering, Manufacturing and Development contract was awarded and the co-production program began. The co-production program has made good progress in accomplishing the milestones called out by the government requirements, including the those stated in several extensions to the original agreement.
The decision was made to conclude the program, partly because of the commercial market downturn. The resulting lower launch rate did not provide a robust business case for building a U.S. production facility. Also, the standup of ULA means that we can offer our customers assured access through the ability to integrate Atlas V payloads onto Delta IV and vice versa. ULA will also continue to stockpile adequate inventory to service the Atlas manifest will into the future.
In the end, the dedication to excellence demonstrated by many ULA, PWR and NPO Energomash employees yielded very significant co-production program accomplishments that provided our customers the confidence to make the decision to conclude the co-production effort. If a serious supply interruption is ever experienced in the future, we know we can build the RD-180 engine in the United States.