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Ex-Officials Back McCain’s Limits on Russian-Made Launch Engines

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  • Panetta, Hayden among those weighing in on Pentagon dispute
  • Pentagon says more Russian engines are needed for a time
Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, speaks at the Stafford County GOP Christmas Party with Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from New Hampshire, left, during a campaign stop with Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and 2016 presidential candidate, not pictured, at Newick's Lobster House in Dover, New Hampshire, U.S., on Friday, Dec. 18, 2015.

Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, speaks at the Stafford County GOP Christmas Party with Senator Kelly Ayotte, a Republican from New Hampshire, left, during a campaign stop with Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina and 2016 presidential candidate, not pictured, at Newick's Lobster House in Dover, New Hampshire, U.S., on Friday, Dec. 18, 2015.

 Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Five veteran U.S. officials, including former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and former CIA Director Michael Hayden, have endorsed Senator John McCain’s push to curtail the Pentagon’s dependence on Russian engines to power U.S. national-security space launches.

“We have an American industrial base with multiple providers that can produce All-American-made rocket engines,” the ex-officials wrote in a letter to McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator Jack Reed, the panel’s top Democrat. “There is no need to rely on Putin’s Russia for this sensitive, critical technology.”