For Air Force launch competition, ULA will offer Vulcan and Atlas, but not Delta - SpaceNews.com

United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno said the development of the company’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is progressing as planned and the vehicle has been offered to the U.S. Air Force in ULA’s proposal for the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement.

The Air Force allowed bidders to pitch a main vehicle and also a backup rocket. During a meeting with reporters Oct. 23, Bruno said ULA is offering Vulcan as the primary vehicle and Atlas 5 as a secondary rocket for the so-called Category A/B missions, which are the majority of national security satellite launches. For the Category C missions that require a capability to launch very large satellites for the intelligence community, ULA will only offer Vulcan, not the Delta 4 Heavy which is today the only vehicle capable of performing these demanding missions.