Breaking: Congress bans use of Russian rocket engine

Congress OKs bill banning purchases of Russian-made rocket engines - LA Times

"Despite lobbying from a joint venture of Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., the Senate voted 89-11 to approve a bill Friday that would ban the Pentagon from awarding future rocket launch contracts to firms using Russian engines."

That is a big deal. No more RD-180's for ULA. I believe they bought a bunch on the off chance that this would happen. I believe this would supercede the lawsuit and make it unnecessary.

"The measure has already passed the House and is now headed for the expected signature of President Obama."

VolkerP said:

"but... can we use up the ones we already bought? Please?"

Click to expand...

Yes. They can. They have enough engines stored up for two years worth of launches from what I read. They had an order in for 28 more engines that I'm sure they will try to still get.

The timing of this scandal might have pushed Congress to act: A Tiny Florida Firm Is Making A Fortune Off Russian Rocket Engines - Business Insider

Here is an update. ULA has quite a few of the engines saved up for military launches. FYI, there is no ban on ULA purchasing the RD-180 for commercial launches. I fully expect ULA to have as many as needed until Vulcan is up and launching.
Russia Maintains High Quality of RD-180 Rocket Engines - ULA