Never do something for free when you could over pay someone else to do it far less efficiently.

Call me cynical, but I believe the answer can be found in Lockeed Martin squeezing more money from the government if it does indeed turn into a more urgent crisis.

It isn’t LM’s ,in their view, because they know that it’s AFSCOM’s careers on the line when they can no longer launch reconsats. They expect their careers to be protected by their congressional patrons. Furthermore, they know why a US clone of RD-180 would take so long and cost so much. The Congress has used their influence over contracts to structure the aerospace industry over the last 60 years for maximum political benefit, not best cost/performance.

Lastly, it is not too obscure that the general deterioration in US/Russian relations started as early as 1993, and both ISS and deals like the RD-180 sales were intended by 2 administrations to try to ameliorate this. Since the 1993 cancellation of negotiations over a joint US/Russian orbital ABM crystallized, IMHO, the beginnings of the “Great Russia” faction now dominant in Russian politics there has been little rational hope for ameliorating that trend, however. This is especially so since the Great Russia faction seized on the invasion of Iraq as a lever to split the 2 countries apart, at the same time as the oil price rises after that invasion increased Russia’s oil and gas revenues.