The U.S. House of Representatives is leading the charge for defense acquisition reform by voting 400 to 30 on Thursday for a defense spending bill for fiscal year 2010 that includes $560 million in funding for the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Team’s F136 engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.


Fired-up: Potential F-35 production for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marines and international customers may reach as many as 5,000 to 6,000 aircraft over the next 30 years.

The House vote comes after the Senate last week voted to remove funding from the defense budget. By supporting the F136 — the competing JSF engine that is already more than 70 percent through its development — the House sets the stage for annual, head-to-head competition to the F-35 propulsion system, and avoids a decades-long, $100 billion engine monopoly being handed to a sole-source provider. In the history of the JSF program, there has never been an engine competition.

More than 2,500 people at GE, Rolls-Royce, and US suppliers depend on the F136 — including 800 in Evendale, Ohio.


Top gun: More than $2.5 billion has been invested in developing the GE Rolls-Royce F136 engine, including more than $50 million from GE and Rolls-Royce. The benefits of competition have been verified by numerous studies and U.S. military experience. The JSF program’s international partners in the F-35 program also support competing engines.

Speaking to Congressional Quarterly, House Defense Appropriations Chairman John P. Murtha this week described the F136 engine program as “absolutely critical,” adding, “An alternative engine will provide cost savings through competition as well as provide greater reliability down the road.”

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 fighter, demonstrated these exact results with cost savings of at least 20 percent.


Into the wild, blue yonder: The first production F136 engines are scheduled for delivery in 2012. The F-35 is a 5th-generation, multi-role aircraft designed to replace the AV-8B Harrier, A-10, F-16, F/A-18 Hornet and the United Kingdom’s Harrier GR.7 and Sea Harrier, all of which are currently powered by GE or Rolls-Royce.

* Read today’s announcement
* Learn more about the JSF engine
* Learn more about why engine competition is important
* Read about today’s vote in the Business Courier of Cincinnati