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Rocket parts purchase challenges security

One wonders what President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reaction would have been had, in 1936, a federal bean counter suggested to him that taxpayers’ money could be saved by purchasing engines for U.S. warplanes from Japan. Roosevelt probably would have had the idiot fired.

But these days, many U.S. officials see nothing wrong with taking similar risks with our national security by relying on our foes for critical military hardware.

A few understand the peril. One is Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who became very angry last week when he learned a penny-wise, pound-foolish policy he thought had been canceled had been reinstated covertly.

For several years, in large measure because of President Barack Obama’s cutbacks at NASA, the United States has been buying rocket engines from Russia. On a stopgap basis, that might have been acceptable.

But the practice was outlawed by legislation enacted after Russian forces racheted up international tensions by intervening in Ukraine. McCain had been under the impression the ban on Air Force purchases of Russian RD-180 rocket engines was permanent.

Last week he learned a provision rescinding the ban was slipped quietly into a major defense spending bill. That will mean hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars sent to Moscow and continued reliance on Russia for an item critical to our national defense.

McCain was right to be angry. Americans worried about our declining defense capability should be upset, too.

editorial@tribtoday.com

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