received all the necessary permissions from government bodies for the delivery of 60 engines from NPO Energomash. On 24 December 2015, United Launch Alliance announced that it placed an order for more RD-180 engines to be used by the Atlas V launch vehicle, in addition to 29 engines that the company had ordered before US sanctions against Russia were introduced over Crimea, and just days after the US Congress lifted the ban on the use of Russian engines to get American ships into space. US production of the RD-180 United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced in February 2015 that it was considering undertaking US production of the Russian RD-180 engine at the Decatur, Alabama, rocket stage manufacturing facility. The US-manufactured engines would be used only for government civil (NASA) and commercial launches, and would not be used for US military launches. This potential project is a backup plan to the new engine development work that ULA is undertaking with Blue Origin on the BE-4. Under RD AMROSS, Pratt & Whitney is licensed to produce the RD-180 in the United States. Originally, production of the RD-180 in the US was scheduled to begin in 2008, but this did not happen. According to a 2005 GAO Assessment of Selected Major Weapon Programs, Pratt & Whitney planned to start building the engine in the United States with a first military launch by 2012. This, too, did not happen. In 2014, the Defense Department estimated that it would require approximately $1 billion and five years to begin US domestic manufacture of the RD-180 engine. Overall, by April 14, 2021 Energomash has delivered 122 RD-180 rocket engines to the United States over more than 20 years of cooperation. In an interview on August 26, 2021 ULA's CEO Tory Bruno said that three or four RD-180s are installed on Atlas V rockets for upcoming missions, and the rest are sitting in a warehouse. “We took early delivery, if you will, with the RD-180, so I can end that relationship and not be dependent upon [Russia] because that’s what Congress asked us to do”, he said. In all, the US has taken delivery of 122 RD-180 engines from Energomash, generating billions in revenue for Russia’s space program. Replacement for the RD-180 engine on US Atlas launch vehicle As a result of the geopolitical and US political considerations as 2014 progressed, United Launch Alliance initiated an effort to consider