Frank Kendall: US national security will not be affected by Russia’s refusal to supply and maintain missile engines
US Air Force Commander Frank Kendall has stated that the national security of the United States will not be affected by Russia’s refusal to supply and maintain missile engines.
“I think the launch missions will be completed,” Kendall told reporters, according to Space News reports on March 3. The main point of the program we launched a few years ago is to move away from the RD-180 engines. At the moment, I have not been informed of any serious concerns regarding the latest decision of Dmitry Rogozin.
Earlier, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said that Russia has canceled the contract to supply the RD-181 engines to the United States, used in the first stage of the Antares rocket, and the RD-180 engines will not serve. Delivered to the United States, it is used in the first stage of Atlas missiles.
“We have a contract, it was planned to supply 12 additional RD-181 engines in 2022-24, negotiations were also underway to supply RD-181M engines with improved performance, but we believe that in this case we can not continue to provide it.”
“The United States is getting our best missile engines in the world, let them fly on something else, on their brooms, we’re freezing those supplies.”
