American Company Still Undertaking Cooperative Threat Reduction Work

Although work on the Department of Defense’s Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program is shifting from joint U.S.-Russian government oversight to Russian control, cooperation between firms from the two countries remains strong and opportunities for CTR work still exists for American companies, an industry executive said yesterday. Orbital ATK is continuing to collaborate with International Space Company Kosmotras—a joint project between Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan—on the Dnepr Program, which involves converting intercontinental ballistic missiles to space launch vehicles that carry iridium satellites into orbit.

 

Ighor Uzhinsky, Director of Vehicle Integration and Services for Orbital ATK’s Flight group, during a presentation yesterday, said Kosmotras officials are meeting with Orbital ATK officials this week. “We’re going to talk about a number of things,” Uzhinsky said during a presentation yesterday. “So we will present what we want to do, but Dnepr is a great, great program. It is very reliable, very capable. And we do have some ideas how we can use that.” Uzhinsky said there are 55 rockets still available, sitting in silos waiting for refurbishment. “If those rockets get restored, they’ll stay in silos forever,” he said.