{"id":34023,"date":"2016-01-27T22:47:40","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T22:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2016\/01\/27\/us-air-force-may-terminate-unique-ula-launch-contract\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:40:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:40:38","slug":"us-air-force-may-terminate-unique-ula-launch-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2016\/01\/27\/us-air-force-may-terminate-unique-ula-launch-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"US Air Force May Terminate Unique ULA Launch Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 The US Air Force is looking at early termination of a controversial arrangement the service holds with United Launch Alliance (ULA) after the company pulled out of a Pentagon\u00a0space launch competition last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ULA, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, in November pulled out of the Air Force&#8217;s GPS III space launch competition\u00a0in response to Congress&#8217;\u00a0ban on the use of Russian RD-180 rocket engines to power military space\u00a0launches. ULA had threatened for some time to skip the competition unless it got relief from the ban on the RD-180, which powers the company&#8217;s Atlas V rocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The GPS III launch services solicitation is a crucial part of the Pentagon&#8217;s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program to send satellites into space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told the Senate Armed Services Committee during a Wednesday hearing the service is considering early termination of the current EELV Launch Capability (ELC) contract, a unique arrangement set up in 2006 to fund the cost of maintaining ULA launch infrastructure. At the time, the arrangement made sense because ULA was the Pentagon&#8217;s sole source for military space launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I was very surprised and disappointed when ULA did not bid on a recent GPS competitive launch opportunity,&#8221; James said. \u00a0&#8220;And given the fact that there are taxpayer dollars involved with this ELC arrangement I just described to you, I&#8217;ve asked my legal team to review what could be done about this.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ELC arrangement has become a point of controversy, especially after Elon Musk&#8217;s SpaceX was certified for national security launches last year using its Falcon 9 rocket. Since SpaceX became a competitor for space launch services, the Department of Defense has made an &#8220;adjustment&#8221; in the ELC contract to ensure there is no &#8220;unfair advantage&#8221; to ULA, Frank Kendall, the Pentagon&#8217;s top acquisitions official, told the committee Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the hearing, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, blasted the ELC arrangement, which provides ULA $800 million a year to stay in business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;That&#8217;s astronomical that \u2014 that sum of money of taxpayers&#8217; dollars. And after paying them $800 million a year for my calculation nine or 10 years, then they don&#8217;t even compete on a launch,&#8221; McCain said. &#8220;Is that the appropriate use of the taxpayers&#8217; dollars?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">James&#8217; legal team is looking into how such an early termination could impact the re-pricing of the remaining block buy launches, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Air Force&#8217;s initial research has shown early termination of the contract could increase costs and cause schedule delays, Lt. Gen. Arnie Bunch, the Air Force&#8217;s deputy assistant secretary for acquisition, told reporters after the hearing. However, the team is still conducting research into the matter, he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Email:\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:lseligman@defensenews.com\">lseligman@defensenews.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Twitter:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/laraseligman\">@laraseligman<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The US Air Force is looking at early termination of a controversial arrangement it has with United Launch Alliance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":73103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1820],"class_list":["post-34023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-home"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"D4EKG4WPMNHLXL34NDC4EEJLBQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2016\/01\/27\/us-air-force-may-terminate-unique-ula-launch-contract\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This 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