Russia will continue to supply RD-180 rocket engines to the US
Russia will continue to supply RD-180 rocket engines to the United States, said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the Russian government's space industry, RIA Novosti reports.
"We discussed this issue; I won't deny, I gathered our specialists several times. We thought - what for?” he said.
"We would [otherwise] lose money; let them fly on our engines, especially since they are old ... It [the RD-180] is from 1994; we already created a new engine a long time ago, and they [our rockets] all fly on this," the official continued, noting that the RD-180 is reliable and very good engine.
In April, Yuri Vlasov, General Director of Russia’s United Space Corporation, expressed the opinion that Russia would continue to supply RD-180s to the US until 2024-2025. At the same time, the American company Aerojet Rocketdyne predicts that by 2019 it will be able to start mass production of AR1 engines, which should replace Russian power units.
At present, the US has already created the first working model of the BE-4 unit, which should replace the RD-180. Two single-chamber BE-4s installed on the first stage of the new Vulcan carrier will collectively allow for greater thrust development than one two-chamber RD-180 on the first stage of the Atlas V rocket. In addition, the calculations show that the BE-4 will save about $3 billion on military launches over 20 years of operation, as compared to the RD-180.
Russian research and production association Energomash has two large contracts with American partners in its portfolio. Under the first contract, the company supplies RD-180 engines to the US for Atlas V heavy-weight missiles; and under the second, it supplies RD-181 engines for the medium-size carrier Antares.
The cost of the first contract exceeds a billion dollars, while the second exceeds 220 million. It was the first contract that allowed Energomash to be financially comfortable in the last 20 years.