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The
U.S. Defense Department said the contract covers launch
capability, mission integration, base and range support,
maintenance, depreciation on equipment, mission assurance,
program management, systems engineering, and launch site and
range operations during fiscal year 2016, which begins Oct. 1.
Air Force and company officials had no immediate comment on how
many rocket launches would be included in the contract.
Separately, U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday released a compromise
version of the $612 billion defense authorization bill for
fiscal 2016 that would allow ULA to use a total of nine more
Russian-built RD-180 rocket engines to compete for military and
spy satellite launch contracts using its Atlas V rockets.
ULA and Air Force officials had urged lawmakers to relax a ban
on use of the engines imposed last year after Russia annexed the
Crimea region of Ukraine, to bridge the time until ULA is ready
to start flying its new U.S.-powered Vulcan rocket.
The fiscal 2015 defense authorization bill had allowed ULA to
use just five engines, but the new bill would add four more.
ULA had argued that it needed to use even more engines to
compete with privately held Space Exploration Technologies, or
SpaceX, which offers lower prices for its Falcon 9 rockets.
The Air Force earlier this year certified SpaceX to compete for
some military and spy satellite launches, which would end the
monopoly that ULA has had since its creation in 2006.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Diane Craft and Ken
Wills)
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