Russia Threatens To Halt Critical Rocket Engine Exports To The U.S.

 

Despite earlier reported hopes that Putin seeks a deal with Trump, as opposed to escalating tensions, it appears Russia is planniong to do just that.

Last Friday (the 13th), just before the US, UK and France launched 105 Tomahawk missiles at Syria, we noted  that as part of Russian countermeasures against US sanctions, it could halt titanium exports to the US, critical for the production of Boeing airplanes, which promptly sent Boeing’s stock lower.

U.S. to Remain Dependent on Russian Rocket Engines for Years Despite Billions Poured Into Domestic Alternatives

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is launched / Getty Images

 

Industry officials say military won’t move fully to American-built engines until at least 2024

The Pentagon will remain dependent on Russian rocket engines to launch military satellites into space through at least the mid-2020s, despite the U.S. government allocating billions of dollars to defense contractors to produce an American-made replacement.

The projection adds several years to initial targets laid out in 2014 by lawmakers and senior Air Force officials, who ordered the United States begin phasing out Russia’s RD-180 engines amid national security concerns spurred by the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea.

The US Air Force Is Reorganizing to Fight in Space

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV-Heavy rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., June 11, 2016. [United Launch Alliance]

 

After a scathing report, service leaders are creating a three-star czar to oversee orbital warfare.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The U.S. Air Force, under pressure from Congress to take more seriously a potential war in space, is creating a new job for a three-star general and making other organizational changes to meet what many see as a growing threat.

The move follows criticism by lawmakers that the Air Force is not properly prepared to fight in space, an area being increasingly militarized by the U.S., Russia, and China. Air Force leaders say the reorganization and new general billet will help space-related projects compete for budget dollars against earth-bound aircraft, drones, nuclear forces, and the rest.

Space Transport Law Keeps US Dependent on Russian Space Engines

Not only is the United States dependent on Russian space engines, it’s (NASA) also dependent on Russia to even reach space and has to pay $68 million per astronaut lifted up (See also HERE). Further adding insult to injury, Russia has even banned American astronauts from the International Space Station from the year 2020 on. Regardless of whatever Russia does, the United States continues to suicide itself and has even as recently as March of this year, decided to scrap its own rockets in favor of its Russian counterpart’s rockets.

Why a nation with so many checks and balances to prevent national suicide would do this is just beyond words. The only logical explanation is a fifth column destroying the nation from within. You don’t make hundreds of mistakes in a row and get to be called an idiot. However, the current American leadership loves it when ignorant citizens call them stupid or ignorant, as proving everything as being intentional makes them criminal.

 

Snead, an aerospace engineer, said there would be significant risk for ULA to abandon the Russian RD-180 engine.

 

Thomas Zimmer – The US government’s space transportation policy continues to keep the country using primarily Russian space engines, experts told Sputnik on Friday.

“US national space transportation policy has been haunted by the ‘we hope for the best’ political decisions made since the 1980s that have continued the use of expendable launch vehicles,” Spacefaring Institute President Mike Snead said.

US to Scrap Delta IV Launch Vehicle in Favor of Russian-Made Rocket

Sacrificing national security for cost will cost America dearly in the future. NASA is already 99.9% dependent on Russia to go into space.

 

The use of the Delta IV space launch vehicle will be discontinued in favor of the Atlas V that uses the Russian made RD-180 rocket to launch US national security payloads into space, United Launch Alliance (ULA) President and Chief Executive Officer Tory Bruno said.

“Delta IV is entirely redundant to the Atlas V in terms of its performance,” Bruno stated in a US House Armed Services Committee hearing on space programs on Tuesday.