Companies Can Go Forward With Self-Funded Development

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) voted Wednesday to allow GE and Rolls-Royce to continue the self-funded development of the F136 engine. The Pentagon formally cancelled the alternative engine program last month.

The 54-5 vote came on an amendment to the House version of the 2012 Pentagon spending bill. The amendment requires that the Secretary of Defense allow the two companies to proceed with the F136 program on their own dime through the end of fiscal 2012. Reuters reports that GE and Rolls-Royce have agreed to put up $100 million to complete the engine.

GE says the alternate engine is about 80 percent complete, and the legislation would allow GE and Rolls-Royce to continue to have access to completed engines and other hardware which would otherwise be scrapped or mothballed. The engines and related components are the property of the U.S. Government under the development contract.

Still, there is no guarantee that the alternate engine will make it through the remainder of the legislative process. The language must also be in the Senate version of the authorization bill, and it must also survive a possible Presidential veto.

FMI: http://armedservices.house.gov