Report: Reduced F-35 buy if 2nd engine kept

[unhappycamper]

A joint effort of GE Aviation and Rolls-Royce would build the F136 engine -- the so-called alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter.


Report: Reduced F-35 buy if 2nd engine kept
By John Reed - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jun 3, 2010 20:24:32 EDT

Echoing the Obama administration’s position, a Congressional Research Service report says funding the F136 alternate engine could reduce the number of F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters to be purchased.

“Continuing F136 development raises issues of impact on the F-35 program, including possible reduction of the numbers of F-35s that could be acquired if funds are used for the alternate engine,” reads a May 25 report titled “Defense: FY2011 Authorization and Appropriations.” “It also raises issues of the out year costs and operational concerns stemming from the requirement to support” two engines in the field.

Yet the report also said that canceling the F136 could hurt the industrial base of the U.S. and its allies, and suggests that competition between the Pratt & Whitney F135 and the GE-Rolls Royce F136 could drive both makers to perform better.

“Eliminating competitive market forces for DoD business worth billions of dollars may concern those who seek efficiency from DoD’s acquisition system and raises the challenge of cost control in a single supplier environment,” the document said.

And it noted that going with the single planned engine — the F135 — means that a serious engine problem could ground the entire F-35 fleet.



unhappycamper comment: My congresscritter, Stephen Lynch (MA-09), just loves anything that brings 'jobs' to Massachusetts. Of course he only likes 'jobs' and the corporate donations to his campaign trust fund.

Oh, and the F-35 costs $243 million dollars. Somehow I doubt we're gonna build 2,400 of them.

[rurallib]

1. schools or fighter planes? health care or fighter planes?

hardly a choice. Fighter planes of course.

[Flipper999]

2. But, but, but, we need these fighter jets!

How else could we counter the cutting-edge Taliban air force? Or the North Korean air force? They've got some real sweet vintage tech over there!

:sarcasm:

[depakid]

3. They're more concerned with this:

"We're anticipating China to have a fifth-generation fighter ... operational right around 2018," Wayne Ulman of the National Air and Space Intelligence Center testified on Thursday to a congressionally mandated group that studies national security implications of US-China economic ties.

"Fifth-generation" fighters feature cutting-edge capabilities, including shapes, materials and propulsion systems designed to make them look as small as a swallow on enemy radar screens.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/New-Chinese-fighter-jet-expected-by-2018-US-intel/articleshow/5956635.cms