Defiant panels approve $485 million for F-35 alternate engine

[The Straight Story]

Defiant panels approve $485 million for F-35 alternate engine


Two House Armed Services subcommittees on Thursday defied the Pentagon and approved $485 million to continue an unwanted second engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Air and Land Forces and Seapower subcommittees split the cost of the engine for the F-35s, which the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps are buying to replace older fighters.

Air and Land Forces Subcommittee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., argued for two versions of the F-35 engine "to reduce risk and accrue the benefits of competition."


Pratt & Whitney Co. builds the primary engine, while General Electric Co. and Rolls Royce Group build the alternate one.

Without competition, the GE/Rolls-Royce team argues that Pratt & Whitney will have a monopoly on the $100 billion effort to supply engines for the 5,000 to 6,000 F-35s being bought by the United States and allies.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=45275&oref=todaysnews

[sailor65]

1. OUTSTANDING...Glad to be the first rec on this one

The engine program should never have been single-sourced the way it was, and the big benefit is not cost savings, it is providing pilots with a better performing engine. There has been too much tap-dancing around the F136 engine program, and Gates should never have even thought about abandoning it.