GE jobs hinge on engine contract

LYNN – If the U.S. Senate follows last week’s House vote to kill the alternate engine for the next generation military jet fighter and President Obama seals its fate, between 300 to 400 jobs could be lost at the General Electric Aircraft Engine plant in Lynn, GE spokesman Rich Gorham said Tuesday.The House last week voted to cut funding for the alternate engine, dubbed the F136 by GE, for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), which would be built by General Electric and Rolls Royce.The JSF is slated to replace all existing Navy, Marine and Air Force fighter jets over the next 20 years.”If we don’t get a chance for development and funding for the F136, it’s not good for our business and not good news for the Lynn plant,” Gorham said. “We envision 300 to 400 jobs would most likely be impacted in Lynn.”More jobs would be lost at GE’s primary aircraft engine plant in Ohio, home state of Republican U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.Pratt & Whitney, based in East Hartford, Conn., won the contract for the primary F-35 engine and the move to abolish the GE/Rolls Royce alternate engine would give Pratt & Whitney exclusivity.Gorham said the House vote makes little sense since the General Accounting Office in Washington has reported a competing engine for the JSF would save $10 billion over the life of the program.”The nature of competition would drive the price down,” Gorham said, adding abolishing the alternate engine “would hand a $100 billion-plus monopoly to one aircraft engine manufacturer.”Moreover, he said, there’s a risk with a single manufacturer; if there’s a problem with engine quality or delivery it could affect the entire fleet of U.S. warplanes.The Lynn GE plant today produces, among others, the T700 engine for military attack helicopters and the F414 engine for the F/A-18 fighter jet. Production of the latter engine is due to scale down next year, as the F/A-18 is one of the warplanes the JSF will replace.Several U.S. Senators including Democrat John Kerry and Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts have appealed to the Senate Appropriations Committee to maintain funding for the alternate engine as a means to preserve competition in the program.Kerry was unavailable for comment Tuesday but his office forwarded to the Item a copy of the letter sent to Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye and Vice Chairman Thad Cochran.The letter, also signed by U.S. Senators Patrick Lahey (D-Vt.), Sherrod Brown, (D-Ohio), Jim Webb, (D-Va.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), reads in part:”From its conception, the Pentagon structured the Joint Strike Fighter program with two engines competing annually for procurement based on performance, durability, acquisition costs, and public support. We do not believe it makes any sense to terminate this program now, when the 30-year benefits of competition are beginning to be delivered. To end the program now will waste $3 billion in spent development costs without any return on the taxpayer investment.”The F136 alternate engine program has received the highest awards for cost and technical performance in 18 of the 19 performance periods, and has been cited as a “model” program. The benefits of competition are clear and well-documented. Given the history of the F-35 development program, we believe that eliminating funding for one of the engines will result in more cost overruns.”A Senate vote on the alternate engine for the JSF is expected sometime next month.