Rep. Buck McKeon Tries To Raise Pentagon Engine Program From the Dead

By Colin Clark
Editor, AOL Defense

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is likely to insert language into the defense policy bill that would allow General Electric and Rolls Royce to work on the technically de-funded alternate engine program for the Joint Strike Fighter plane. Current government regulations bar the two defense companies from working on the proposed F136 engines because they are now considered government property.

Pratt & Whitney is the maker of the F135 engine, the engine program of record for the Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35. But in a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation Thursday, McKeon announced that GE and Rolls would invest their own money to keep the program alive and provide "competition" to Pratt & Whitney.

A GE source said the companies would provide between $100 million and $200 million for fiscal 2012. But the alternate engine program has required roughly $500 million per year until now, raising questions over whether it could survive solely on private funds from the two companies.

And it remains unclear whether the Air Force would permit GE entry into and use of government facilities, especially those needed for testing the engine.

But one observer with long experience in military acquisition said the companies' involvement was a “great idea” that would help “keep Pratt honest.” The observer added that there were benefits to allowing a company develop a program without government funding.

Since becoming HASC chairman, McKeon has consistently said that the Defense Department needs more money than it currently receives. But the odds of reviving the alternate engine program may be against him.

On the right side of McKeon sits the Tea Party. It led the big defeat of McKeon and other second engine supporters in mid-February when the House voted 233-198 to kill the F136 engine.

On the left side of McKeon sit a host of Democrats, some eager to trim the defense budget, some who support Pratt, and others who support the administration’s position that the second engine is unnecessary.

Lexington Institute defense analyst and consultant Loren Thompson said he believes GE “is probably wasting money trying to keep its alternative going by spending company money." He added, "GE desperately wants a berth in the future fighter-engine business, but it can't keep pouring money into something the customer has rejected.”

The Pentagon officially rejected the program on April 26.

Comments

[hopeisalive]

10:32 AM on 05/06/2011

More money for defense. More money for corporations and the upper 2%. Less money for the rest of us. Standard logic and plans for a greater America from the Party of No.

[Justan Olfrend]

10:07 AM on 05/06/2011

"the companies would provide between $100 million and $200 million for fiscal 2012. But the alternate engine program has required roughly $500 million per year until now"

So. Who else reads that we were gouged in this statement if the can actually do it for less than half the cost the taxpayer actually paid?

[mpilkanis]

09:18 AM on 05/06/2011

Hey, wait a minute! I thought we were "broke"!

[missmanners]

09:05 AM on 05/06/2011

But but but ….the DEFICIT

[kareemachan]

08:46 AM on 05/06/2011

Gee, and this from a member of the party that wanted to slash absolutely everything necessary to balance the budget, huh. The lobbyists must be working overtime on this.

[JHA in Texas]

08:42 AM on 05/06/2011

One GOP politicians pork cut is another GOP politicians corporate donation!

[pita143]

08:42 AM on 05/06/2011

This should die, and die a quick death. WE do not need this jet. It is fast, it is sexy, it has all kinds of bells and whistles and we have NO ONE in the World that we will need to use this jet against.

We could easily upgrade the electronics and avionics of the FA -18 Super Hornet and have a jet that is a proven winner that could beat any Air Force in the World.

Building a bigger, sexier, more bells and whistles jet, does not make it a BETTER JET.

I spend over 15 years in the Air Force and saw some great Jets get sent to the scrap heap because Congress spent more money on newer jets that did not do as much as the older ones.

[jlm11579]

08:39 AM on 05/06/2011

A look at Rep. McKeon's top four donors says it all:

1. Lockheed Martin
2. Northrop Grumman
3. Boeing
4. General Dynamics

Got it?

[huff reader]

09:09 AM on 05/06/2011

But not GE? Not one of those companies stand to benefit from the second engine.

Then, what am I supposed to 'get'?

That's strange...

[jlm11579]

10:52 AM on 05/06/2011

McKeon is owned by the defense industry.

No, the GE $'s are not showing up at the top of the list.....but the influence is there, big time

[Smoke Willoughby]

08:39 AM on 05/06/2011

The Buck stops at the palm of every lobbyist from here to San Quentin.
He's a thief-for-hire, unashamed, flagrant, a slobbering, Republican golden calf who ought to be in jail, and a nemesis to responsible defense.

[wikwox]

08:28 AM on 05/06/2011

We'll have to pry the pork from politicians cold, dead hands to balance the budget. Thier addicted to it and we seem powerless to stop them. Perhaps when politicians bring home the bacon the next time, and there will be a next time, if thier met with criticism and protests they'll think twice. But I doubt it.

[ctman47]

08:24 AM on 05/06/2011

Well we see the Republicans starting their big spending ways just like last time they controlled the House.

[Dr Confuso]

08:24 AM on 05/06/2011

How much are the lobbyists paying this swine wrangler?

[surlyguvna]

08:21 AM on 05/06/2011

"Waste unless I need it" on parade. So much for saving money.

[frank day]

08:06 AM on 05/06/2011

Oh Well.

At least we still make something in this country.

[aonemandog]

08:05 AM on 05/06/2011

"But one observer with long experience in military acquisition said the companies' involvement was a “great idea” that would help “keep Pratt honest.” What a lie! The only thing that will keep them honest is heightened surveillance of the contracting and production effort by knowledgeable government administrators. Allowing GE/Rolls Royce to continue to build this boon-dogle second engine only lines the pockets of crooks like McKeon and, of course, the manufacturers. McKeon should be investigated and censured for continuing to support his true masters (GE) instead of supporting a duly-passed law. Corruption at its most blatant.