Pentagon Demands an End to Alternate Engine's ConstructionApril 01, 2011
 Even after a House of Representatives' vote to terminate a program to build an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the companies behind that second engine are still trying to keep it alive. General Electric and Rolls-Royce have been aggressively lobbying Congress in the hopes of changing the minds of the Republican freshmen who voted against the program and killed it by a slim margin, according to an article in The New York Times. With possibly tens of billions at stake, the companies have doggedly maintained that they will spend millions of their own dollars to continue developing and building an alternate engine. The Pentagon has now also drawn a line in the sand, demanding that GE and Rolls-Royce stop working on the engine for up to 90 days, the Times reported. The Defense Department said it can no longer afford to spend several billion dollars to develop a second engine. The companies, however, have no intention of stopping because of what they call the Pentagon's "unilateral action." They plan instead to continue with design work over the next few months — a less expensive option than more intense activities, which added up to an average of $28 million a month in spending. GE and Rolls-Royce still have many supporters on the Hill, including Howard P. McKeon, a Republican member of the House from California and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. McKeon criticized the Pentagon's pressure on the companies, saying that Defense Secretary Robert Gates should "not preempt the Congressional deliberation process." The sure winner in this conflict is Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies, which won the contract to build the engine for the F-35. The Joint Strike Fighter is billed as the military main next-generation fighter with various customized models for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corp., which collectively will buy up to 2,400 jets worth about $100 billion. |
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