Senate sides with Obama to defund GE jet engine

LYNN – A U.S. Senate vote late Thursday seemingly defunded the production of a backup engine manufactured by GE for the F-35 fighter plane, but the defense contractor says the battle isn’t over because plenty of support exists in the House.The voice vote eliminated spending on the backup engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a next-generation combat aircraft known as The Lightning. GE in partnership with Rolls-Royce has been making the F136 engine in Lynn and at other company factories as the backup powerplant for that fighter plane.The Senate also voted to strip from the defense spending bill $1.75 billion to produce more F-22 fighter planes, the engines for that aircraft made solely by Pratt & Whitney.The Obama administration has vowed to stop spending military dollars on unnecessary programs.The vote to halt production of the backup or alternate engine for the F-35 fighter plane was taken only hours before the Senate authorized a $680 billion bill for the upcoming fiscal year. The defense bill passed 87-7.On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates successfully waged a campaign to change the way the Pentagon purchases weapons, his point made by eliminating future F-22 engine production.Instead, the Pentagon will seemingly be forced to focus production on the F-35 Lightning or Joint Strike Fighter, which can be used by all branches of the military.A White House statement issued Friday indicated President Obama would issue the first veto of his presidency if the defense bill contained money for alternate engines for either the F-22 or the F-35.GE spokesman Rick Kennedy said Friday that the fight is far from over in terms of spending on the alternate engine for the F-35 Lightning, which at GE is known as the F136.”So far, we have full House support,” said Kennedy. “The budget process is extremely complex and until yesterday we were batting 1,000.” Kennedy said GE views the matter as far from over and that arguments for engine competition will continue. According to Kennedy, Pratt & Whitney encountered technical problems and dramatically increasing costs with its version of the engine for the F-35, noting that the information turned up during a House Armed Services Committee study on the aircraft engine production.As for Obama potentially nixing production of the F-22, it would not impact GE since the company is not involved with that product, Kennedy said.According to Kennedy, GE and Rolls-Royce emphasize that the F136 engine recently received the support of the House in its version of the defense authorization bill and the House Appropriations Committee, which reported its spending bill recommendations for full House consideration next week.”The funding battle over the GE Rolls-Royce F136 fighter engine for the Joint Strike Fighter is far from over,” he said. “The argument for an engine competition for the Joint Strike Fighter, the largest fighter program in U.S. history, is simply too compelling.”Kennedy added that the F136 engine development program, which is 70 percent complete, has performed on cost and on schedule. “The F136 engine for the Joint Strike Fighter is an example of excellence in defense acquisition, staying on schedule and within budget throughout its history and consistently receiving exceptional performance reviews for contract execution from the F-35 Joint Program office,” he said.”Most importantly, the F136 brings competition to the F-35 propulsion system, which otherwise will result in a decades-long $100 billion engine monopoly handed to a sole-source provider-with no competitive selection process. History has shown that competition in aircraft engine programs significantly reduces cost, while improving safety, reliability and contractor responsiveness. The ‘Great Engine War,’ the 20-year battle to power the F-16, demonstrated these exact results with cost savings of at least 20 percent.”The House of Representatives version of the defense bill passed in June contains more than $300 million for spar