The House Armed Services Committee has proposed that the U.S. Air Force spend $100 million more than the service budgeted for next year to replace the Russian-made rocket engine used to launch most U.S. national security satellites. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the committee, recommended that the Air Force spend $185 million next year on activities leading to an American-made replacement for the RD-180, the main engine on United Launch Alliance's workhorse Atlas 5 rocket. The Air Force requested $85 million for that effort in its 2016 budget proposal released in February. In his markup of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, released April 27, Thornberry said he wanted the Air Force to "move faster than it is planning to end reliance on Russian rocket engines."
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