It looks like Aerojet Rocketdyne does not have enough money to develop a rocket engine, much less an entire rocket, otherwise they would acquiesce to ULA’s insistence that they spend some of their own money on it and remain ULA’s supplier.

The article says that there was not much documentation showing how the company would come up with the $2 billion it offered. It may be dependent upon a potential loan that is backed by the value of ULA, although with the current engine troubles ULA’s value may not be what it used to be.

Although Aerojet Rocketdyne is still selling engines to others, specifically the RS-25 and J-2X for the SLS, they may be desperate to keep supplying a major customer. Otherwise, they may have to downsize rather dramatically. When SLS stops flying, in a decade, they may be out of business entirely.

Wodun, for anyone to build and develop a competitive launcher for $2 billion, they would have to have a corporate culture allowing them to do what is needed for that. A/R don’t have it. Practically every part of Aerojet/Rocketdyne has been immersed in the cost+ contract culture for over 50 years. That a large part of the company is owned by Russians is just another nail in their coffin. I cannot understand what their board was thinking when that happened. In fact, some oversight hearings of the US regulatory approvals for that might reveal very interesting attitudes in the US regulatory bureaucracy. Russia’s corruption in aerospace may not be so singular as thought, previous to this.