Senate panel excludes funding for secondary strike fighter engine

The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday decided to leave out
additional funding for a secondary F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine.

General Electric and Rolls Royce are building the secondary engine for
the new fighter jet. Pratt & Whitney builds the primary engine and
has been locked in an intense lobbying and public relations battle to
see the secondary engine scrapped.

{mosads}The Senate committee’s exclusion of funding authorization for the
second engine is a partial victory for the White House and Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates, who has threatened to recommend a veto over the
engine. The House Armed Services Committee included $485 million for
the GE-Rolls Royce engine and at press time the House was scheduled to
vote on an amendment seeking to scrap the funding from the House’s 2011
defense authorization bill.

The Senate Armed Services chairman, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), is a
strong supporter of having two engines for the large fighter jet fleet,
but already hinted this week that he would not take up the fight for
the second engine in his committee because the Senate could end up
stripping the funding on the floor. The Senate stripped funding for the
second engine last year.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), in whose state Pratt & Whitney
builds the fighter jet engine, hailed the decision not to add funding
to the defense authorization bill.

“This is a great victory
for both American taxpayers and the aviators, airmen, and Marines who
will soon fly the Joint Strike Fighter into combat,” Lieberman said.
“The Department of Defense has long said that it neither wants nor
intends to use an alternate engine, and I applaud my colleagues for
supporting the president and canceling this wasteful program.”

The Senate panel also adopted a provision that would prevent any
funds from being spent on the alternate engine unless the secretary of
Defense certifies that it would reduce the total life cycle costs of
the Joint Strike Fighter program and improve the operational readiness
of the F-35 fleet.