Legislation Would Block Destruction Of Already-Assembled Powerplants

The chair of the House Armed Services committee Howard P. Buck McKeon (R-CA) plans to file legislation that would prevent the Pentagon from destroying or discarding F136 engines which have already been built.

Sources say that legislation that has not yet been filed would block funding for any "activities related to destroying or disposing ... property owned by the federal government that was acquired under the F136 propulsion system development contract."

Bloomberg News reports that the congressman's legislation also instructs military officials to hang on to the engines developed by GE and Rolls-Royce, in anticipation of re-starting the alternate engine program at some future date.

DoD instructed GE to stop all work on the F136 engine last month. In response, GE offered last week to continue working on the engine in FY '12 without a government contract. A GE spokesperson said the F136 is "80 percent done," and it would not seek the final 20 percent of funding from the government.

A HASC subcommittee chair proposed last week that the full committee limit funding for improvements in the F-35 engines unless the Secretary of Defense agrees to a second engine option for the aircraft. Funding for the alternative engine had been stripped from the FY '11 Pentagon spending bill last month, the first time the lower chamber has voted to kill money for the engine.

FMI: http://armedservices.house.gov