Interesting new rocket venture

EADS and Alliant Techsystems will take Alliant's Ares-1, add an EADS - Ariane upper stage, and build a new rocket called "Liberty" to try to capture NASA and international business ferry astronauts and cargo to orbit.
COMMENT: I wish them well, but I don't get the business plan. They are behind Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and especially SpaceX in this venture, not to mention Russia. They will need some kind of real cost breakthrough to capture business, and I don't see it in the materials released so far. They set a cost target as $180M and admit they need NASA money up front to finish R&D.