Graham Warwick
graham_warwick@aviationweek.com
Ft. Worth, Texas, and Washington
Guy Norris
guy_norris@aviationweek.com
Funding development of a second engine from within the existing F-35 budget would cut production by dozens of aircraft and push up program costs, the Joint Strike Fighter's program chief warns in an interview with Aviation Week.
The concerns come as Congress is expected to reverse the White House and Pentagon's effort to cancel the alternate powerplant.
Forcing the program to fund development of the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 from within the existing JSF budget would "take 50-80 tails out of the program" over the next five years, says the program executive officer (PEO), Marine Corps Brig. Gen. David Heinz.
The Defense Department's Fiscal 2010 budget request calls for procurement of 513 F-35s over five years, an increase of 25 over previous plans, with another 180 expected to be built for international partners over the same period. This would take annual production "into the low 200s" by Fiscal 2015, he says.
Funding the F136 within the existing budget would require cutting six aircraft from the 30 planned in Fiscal 2010, Heinz says. This would make aircraft in subsequent years more expensive, pushing back international purchases and compounding the problem because the partners could not afford early aircraft, he says.
"We would never get to 200 tails [a year]. We would build out to around 100, under-utilize the tooling and not get down the learning curve," the PEO says. "I worry about taking tails out of the program because it will get so expensive the partners will start to pull back."
Pentagon leadership has not sought to continue the F136, arguing DOD can only afford the Pratt & Whitney F135 primary engine. But Congress is expected to reinstate the funding. Lawmakers, with widespread consensus, have ignored the cancellation effort for years and earmarked for the alternate.
But before, some of the restored funding has come from within the existing JSF budget, forcing cuts elsewhere in the program. Former U.S. Air Force leaders have testified on Capitol Hill that they didn't so much oppose an alternate engine as they did sacrificing elsewhere to fund it (Aerospace DAILY, March 7, 2008).
The GE/R-R Fighter Engine Team has defended its lobbying for the F136. "We've never advocated taking the money out of the other parts of the program. Congress needs to decide where the money comes from," says Dennis Jarvi, president of Rolls-Royce North America Defense.
The international partners would like a competing engine, and Pentagon efforts to kill the F136 are "sure to be a major topic" when they meet in Washington later this month, says Tom Burbage, Lockheed executive vice-president and general manager, F-35 program integration. "There is support in the international community for the second engine," he tells Aviation Week.
Burbage says the second-engine issue is "programmatically complex" because, while Congress has incrementally funded development of the F136, the Defense Dept. has not factored production of two engines into its budget planning and not decided how it would conduct an annual leader/follower competition.
"It's the clear intent of Congress to have a second engine, but it could have a very substantial impact," he says.
"O comunismo é a filosofia do fracasso, o credo da ignorância e o evangelho da inveja. Sua virtude inerente é a distribuição equitativa da miséria".
Winston Churchill
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