Pentagon questions future viability of Lockheed-Boeing venture

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon's chief arms buyer on Wednesday said it was 'questionable' whether United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, could survive if the U.S. Defense Department immediately stopped using the Russian RD-180 engine that powers ULA's Atlas 5 rocket.

Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that ULA did have a second rocket, the Delta 4, that did not use the RD-180 engines, but that vehicle was far more costly than the Atlas 5 rocket and could not compete with launches provided by SpaceX.

Kendall said the department was concerned about losing ULA as a competitor since that would leave the military relying only on privately held SpaceX for launches, despite a policy that requires two ways to launch satellites into space.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)