Pentagon, Obama Bomb House Bid To Revive Jet Engine

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Kill the F136 support.
If GE and RR are really ready to fund the engine themselves, they DO NOT need any congress or Defense Department permission or support to do so. As such I agree that this all Snake Oil.
As for sole source, Once P&W has the engine all figured out and fully approved by the Defense department, it could be built under contract at several manufactures, including GE and RR if need be.
Time for RR and GE to move on or COMPLETELY fund it themselves. They should quit playing politics and look forward to the market that are still out there.

robert pickell of PA 4:26AM May 29, 2011

The specifications for the manufacture of the F-35 power plants are identical. Either engine is completely interchangeable "in the airframe", which was the whole point. The two different technologies embodied in the engines themselves ‘is’ what gives the competition meaning. The GE/Rolls Royce team have made some extraordinary competitive products in the past. The F-110 engine (competing against the PW F-100 engine) for the F-16, F-15 and F-14 (powered by TF-30(s)) were cases in point. The F-110 out performed its competition, and were subsequently used in F-16, F-15, and some Foreign Military Sales aircraft. Some of the last F-14 tomcats were upgraded with the F-110 finally giving the airframe a powerplant that actually let us truly experience the potential of the weapon system (range, fuel economy, speed, and maneuverability).
When competition is discouraged one must always look at the motives of those who discourage it. In this case it is the potential of a $100 Billion sole source engine contract for the life of the F-35 program.
Every time competition has been tried in the USAF fighter engine contracts, a net savings, greater performance and reliability, has been realized in the final analysis. Not to mention the manufacturing infrastructure, and jobs that continue with the effort.
So . . . I’m going to continue to push for the GE/RR F-136 development team to continue to develop the engine, particularly since they believe in their product so much, they are going to foot the rest of the development bill. What do we have to lose? It would be short sighted to let it go at this point. We already have all of our eggs in one basket with the F-35 Combat system. Let’s not strap it with a single engine source too!

CConway of TX 12:17AM May 28, 2011

GE is running around Washington crying in any office their lobbies can get into. I say any Congressmen who votes to waste another $1 on the F136 should be recalled. If Congress is listening to the people, we want cost reductions now. This would be a great place to start $3 billion dollars saved.
Remember GE does not pay Federal Taxes.

MI of GA 8:36PM May 25, 2011

GE and Rolls say they will pay only $100M of a $3 billion expense. Who are they kidding? If you think this is good samaritan spending you are blind like a fool. If GE and Rolls agree to spend all $3B *and* pay the additional government expense of managing a second engine program then maybe I will listen. Until then, this is snake oil.

Janon of CT 4:49PM May 25, 2011

Big problem with this piece -- it treats the GE engine like it is still brand new. In short, using an argument from 2006, when development was still in early stages.
WSJ reported GE is 80% done with engine and paying the rest out of pocket.
I get the short-term savings argument from the Pentagon, but now GE is sucking up the remaining fiscal load, it just seems like a pissing contest between Congress and DoD.
All about who gets the scalp instead of which is the best way to buy engines.

W2 of DC 1:23PM May 25, 2011

House GOP still all about wasting money in pork like the second F-35 engine, but this goes farther undermining our military by trying sabotage the defense budget.
Maybe the House GOP will hold up raising the countries credit limit to get their pork engine - why not destroy the countries credit rating it they are willing to hang our security out to dry for an unnecessary duplicate jet engine that costs millions.

Casey of MS 11:01PM May 24, 2011