By Marina Malenic
The General Electric [GE]-Rolls-Royce team developing the F136 alternate engine for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter has begun a flight clearance certification review in preparation for flight testing in 2011, despite the Obama administration’s plan to cancel the alternate engine for the next generation fighter jet.
GE/Rolls is currently in the fifth year of its System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract with the F-35 Joint Program Office. The first SDD F136 engine in production configuration began testing in January at GE’s facility in Evendale, Ohio, the companies said in an announcement on the flight test preparations released yesterday. Two more F136 engines are in assembly and will be testing within a few months, according to GE.
F-35 engine production is expected to be worth some $100 billion over the life of the program. Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies [UTX], developed the F135 engine currently in use on early production models of the aircraft.
Some 70 percent of the total funding for GE/Rolls’ SDD contract has been allocated, according to budget documents. The first production F136 engines are scheduled to be delivered in 2012 to coincide with the fourth lot of F-35 aircraft production.
Like the Bush administration in recent years, the Obama administration is seeking no more money for the alternate engine effort in its Fiscal Year 2010 budget request. In his proposed Pentagon budget rollout earlier this month, President Obama singled out the F136 program as a prime example of the “unnecessary defense programs that do nothing to keep us safe, but rather prevent us from spending money on what does keep us safe.”
However, Congress has earmarked funds for both engines in the past three budget cycles and may well do so again. During a May 20 hearing, Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on air and land forces expressed support for continued funding of the F136 engine.