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GE Response to Department of Defense “Stop Work” Order on GE/Rolls-Royce F136 Engine for the Joint Strike Fighter

Dépèche transmise le 24 mars 2011 par Business Wire

GE Response to Department of Defense “Stop Work” Order on GE/Rolls-Royce F136 Engine for the Joint Strike Fighter

EVENDALE, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The GE/Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team received a “Stop Work” order from the Department of Defense instructing the team to stop efforts on the F136 for 2011 once the current funding runs out at the end of March.

While the F136 development contract contains a “stop work” clause, we are disappointed that DoD took this unilateral action before Congress has completed its work on the fiscal year 2011 budget.

However, we are not deterred by this decision. We feel so strongly about this issue, as do our Congressional supporters, that we will, consistent with the stop work directive; self-fund the F136 program through this 90-day stop work period.

We are fully committed to delivering a better engine for the F-35 program, and have no intention of abandoning the warfighter and taxpayers.

Everyone knows competition saves money. Our supporters in Congress are more determined than ever, and are encouraging us to press the merits of our case.

We will not walk away from a $3 billion taxpayer investment and your hard work to deliver what the Senate has called a “near model program.” The F136 engine is meeting or exceeding performance expectations, is demonstrating significant advantages over the Pratt & Whitney engine, and is nearly complete.

The F135 has racked up $3.4 billion in cost overruns with continued delays and technical issues. Just last week, House hearings confirmed that the P&W engine has not met required testing for the JSF flight envelope after four years.

These issues won’t fix themselves. Only competition creates performance based rewards and delivers better and better capability … it’s just that simple. Mischaracterizing the F136 as “redundant” does not support our founding principles of competition and excellence which are at the core of the US military.

We are gratified that several House and Senate leaders, who will convene in early April to complete the FY2011 budget process, are determined supporters of competing JSF engines for a myriad of financial and security reasons.

GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. For more information, visit us at www.ge.com/aviation. Follow GE Aviation on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GEAviation and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GEAviation.