Senator keeps program for alternate fighter jet engine alive
Proponent of second engine argues competition will result in savings and a better final product.
Former Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner, R-Va., was victorious Thursday in a hard-fought battle to keep alive a development program for a second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, Senate aides said.
During a closed Senate Armed Services Committee markup Thursday of the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, Warner was successful in overturning a decision by the Armed Services Airland Subcommittee to accept the Pentagon's request to scrap the so-called alternate engine.
Airland Subcommittee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., has long supported the cancellation of the second engine, which the Pentagon says would save $1.8 billion over the next five years. Connecticut is home to United Technologies' Pratt & Whitney unit, the primary engine manufacturer for the international fighter program.
Warner forecast his efforts to reinstate funding for the alternate engine during a brief interview Wednesday. "It's not over 'til it's over," he said.
The former chairman was among those who led the effort last year to reverse the Pentagon's budget decision to cancel the second engine, which would be built by General Electric Co. and the British firm Rolls Royce. He has said repeatedly that competition to provide the engine for the $250 billion international fighter program would result in cost savings and a better final product.
Warner also has been sympathetic to the concerns of other nations who intend to buy the plane, including Britain, that their companies have not received adequate work on the program.
Warner's amendment does not authorize a specific amount of fiscal 2008 money for the alternate engine, but requires the Defense Department to obligate enough funding to continue its development. The House last week included $480 million in its version of the defense authorization for the second engine.
Senate Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee Chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., co-sponsored the Warner amendment. Lieberman has pointed out that any funds for the second engine would ultimately come from other areas of the Joint Strike Fighter program.