Tiny Florida Defense Company profiteers with Russian Rocket Engines

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I thought this was an interesting article about a tiny Florida defense company attempting to pad their profits in dealing with a Russian rocket engine manufacturing company:

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"Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, is seeking to end funding for future purchases of the Russian engines in the coming year’s Defense Department budget. In June, he wrote to the Pentagon’s chief of procurement seeking details about the price of the engines and the role of Florida-based Amross as a middleman. In his letter, McCain said he suspected that the Air Force was being overcharged. The Pentagon hasn’t divulged the information he sought.

Told of the Reuters findings, McCain said he has been expressing deep concern to the Obama administration that U.S. taxpayers “are paying millions of dollars to companies that may have done no work but merely served as a ‘pass-through’ to enrich corrupt Russian businessmen connected with Vladimir Putin.” The administration’s response, he said in a written statement, signals “it is either ignorant of these allegations or unwilling to investigate them. This is unacceptable.”


http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/19/us-russia-capitalism-rockets-special-rep-idUSKCN0J22BQ20141119?feedType=RSS

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Then of course there is this situation which has Russia and the USA blaming each other:

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"The NK-33 engines were first developed for the Soviet Union’s N-1 moon rocket, but many of them wound up in storage when that programme was cancelled after several launch failures. The US company Aerojet Rocketdyne reportedly bought about 40 of the Soviet engines in the 1990s and began modifying them for use in US rockets. The resulting AJ-26 engine has suffered some failures during tests: one caught fire in 2011, and another being tested in May before use in an Antares flight burned up.
 
Orbital Sciences revealed plans on Wednesday to end its use of the ageing Russian rockets for future launches, a transition that could take up to a year to complete and delay its next scheduled launch in April.
 
“The AJ-26 rocket engines used in [the Antares first stage main propulsion system] have presented us with some serious technical and supply challenges in the past,” said the chairman, David Thompson, in a hastily convened conference call with investors.

 
“So Orbital has been reviewing alternatives since the middle of last year and recently selected a different main propulsion system for future use by Antares. It is possible we may decide to accelerate this change if the AJ-26 turns out to be implicated in the failure.”

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/29/russian-rocket-crash-virginia

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More on the RD-180 engine, which is a different engine than the one referenced directly above:

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"The engines flew from Moscow to Huntsville, Ala., aboard a Russian Antonov An-124 transport plane. Workers planned to unload the engines for a road trip to United Launch Alliance's rocket factory in nearby Decatur, Ala.

The shipment marked the first time RD-180 engines were delivered to the United States since a senior Russian government official threatened to cut off the supply of engines for launches for the U.S. military, the primary customer for United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rocket.

"Today, United Launch Alliance received two RD-180 engines at our factory in Decatur, Alabama, that will support critical near-term U.S. missions," said Jessica Rye, a ULA spokesperson, in a written statement. "We expect another shipment of three engines later this year."

RD-180 engines have flown 54 times since 2000 with a perfect record, including 48 launches of the Atlas 5 rocket.

Manufactured by NPO Energomash near Moscow, the dual-nozzle engines consume rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants. The engines produce 860,000 pounds of thrust at sea level and use an efficient closed-cycle staged combustion architecture."

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1408/20rd180delivery/