The US Air Force allocated a budget of $ 738 million to replace the Russian RD-180 rocket engines

Booster "Volcano"

The United States Air Force announced a budget of up to $ 536 million for Aerojet Rocketdyne to create an AR1 rocket engine, as well as up to $ 202 million for the United Launch Alliance on the Vulcan launch vehicle. The latter should replace the Atlas-5 with Russian engines.

With the help of these developments, the Americans hope to end their dependence on the Russian RD-180 engine, which is successfully used to launch commercial satellites and US government satellites.

The AR1 engine, like the RD-180, runs on liquid oxygen and kerosene. Aerojet Rocketdyne is guaranteed to receive funding of $ 115 million, but the budget can grow to $ 536 million if conditions are met. Aerojet Rocketdyne itself provides half of the funding.
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The first tests AR1 will be held in 2017, will continue in 2018, and hope to certify the final version in 2019.


The Aerojet Rocketdyne office has a model of a liquid-propellant rocket engine installed, which was used in the Saturn-5 launch vehicle

For the Vulkan rocket, a BE-4 engine on liquefied natural gas from Blue Origin, a privately owned firm of Jeff Bezos, is provided. Apparently, the Americans will have at least two rocket engines to choose from, but the AR1 is considered as a backup.

“Although the RD-180 engine showed outstanding results with more than 60 successful launches, we think it’s time for America to invest in building its own engine,” said Tory Bruno, president and CEO of the United Launch Alliance. “We are moving towards our goal of developing the most reliable launch systems at the most affordable price.”

In addition to the Vulcan launch vehicle, the United Launch Alliance will also spend money on the development of the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES) upper stage engine by 2023.

A “volcano” with ACES and boosters will have a 30% greater payload than Delta-4 Heavy, which has the highest output payload among all the launch vehicles in the United States.

The decision to abandon the RD-180 and develop its own launch platform for five years was made by the US Congress during the 2014 Crimean crisis, Space News reported .