Wharton Aerospace & Defense Report

Pentagon Acquisition Chief Wants End to ‘Self-Fund’ Effort on Alternate F-35 EngineJuly 01, 2011

 

The F-35 fighter’s alternate engine is quickly turning into an engine that just can’t be stopped.


Ashton Carter, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, scolded the lawmakers who are refusing to let the second engine program die. In a letter obtained by The Hill, Carter noted that two items added to the 2012 Pentagon authorization bill by the House Armed Services Committee would lead to cost increases and delays for the program. 


The Hill article noted that one of the provisions would actually limit the funding to the primary engine if certain “performance improvements” were made at the alternate engine power plant.

In a letter to lawmakers, Carter said that the provision would “place limits and conditions on the ability of the Department to continue proper and customary development of the propulsion system for the [F-35] program.” He added that “it would preclude normal and necessary performance improvements in the propulsion system… [and] would significantly delay, disrupt and increase the cost of the [F-35] program."

Meanwhile, lawmakers who support the alternate engine program continue to maintain that the only way to keep costs down in the primary engine program is to allow for a competing engine.

The White House and the Pentagon have been trying to stop the alternate engine program for several years, saying that it is not necessary and adds exorbitant costs to the program. Carter was especially annoyed by a portion of the House-approved bill that would allow the alternate engine contractors—Rolls-Royce and GE—to use Pentagon-owned equipment to test the second engine.

“Providing this government property to the contractor would definitely have a cost to the government," Carter told lawmakers. “It is unrealistic for the F1 36 contractor to use government property in a development program and return it to the government in the same condition.”




Carter also noted that the Rolls-Royce and GE plan to self-fund the project was a way to re-establish government funding in the future.  He said the Pentagon would prefer a provision that makes it clear that the companies could not recover any of the funds they used for the engine in future contracts, according to the Hill.

“Self-funding is aimed at protecting a $3 billion taxpayer investment in a JSF engine that is 80% complete. GE-Rolls seeks to run three engines next year at GE’s altitude test facility–the only privately owned facility of its kind,” GE spokesman Rick Kennedy said in an email to The Hill.