Columbus
Dispatch...
Government kills
fighter-jet engine to be built in Ohio
Loss means GE won’t be hiring at Cincinnati plant
By Jack Torry
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration yesterday officially scrapped
the alternate engine for a new generation of jet fighters, a move that
means GE Aviation in Ohio will put off plans to hire hundreds of
engineers for the project.
The decision, announced by the Pentagon, was not unexpected because
Congress this year eliminated money in the 2011 federal budget to
continue building the second engine. The engine - a joint effort by
General Electric and Rolls-Royce - was to have been built at the GE
Aviation plant in the Cincinnati suburbs.
Supporters of the second engine hoped to include money in the 2012
budget to continue production.
Rick Kennedy, a GE Aviation spokesman, said the company will not have
to lay off any engineers or workers because the facility has landed two
contracts to build engines for a business jet and a commercial jet. But
he called the cancellation a “huge missed opportunity. We are losing an
opportunity to hire hundreds of engineers here.”
Both GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney had been working on separate
engines for the advanced F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Pentagon and
other critics had insisted that it was not necessary to have GE
Aviation build the alternate engine.
In a statement, Kennedy said GE Aviation was “deeply disappointed” by
the Pentagon’s decision, saying that GE and Rolls-Royce had spent $3
billion in tax money during the past 14 years to develop the engine.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said “this decision is bad for taxpayers and
our national defense. It eliminates the kind of competition that has
been proven to reduce costs and improve performance and it wastes
taxpayer dollars by prematurely terminating a part of the troubled
Joint Strike Fighter program that is working well.”
Meghan Dubyak, a spokeswoman for Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said,
“Sen. Brown is not done fighting to preserve the competitive engine
which reduces costs for taxpayers in the long term. He will explore all
legislative options and continues to be in touch with the Department of
Defense about the need for a competitive engine.”
Brown spoke to Pentagon officials yesterday about the second engine.
The Lockheed-Martin F-35 is a single-seat jet that is designed for
air-to-air and ground combat and will be stealthy, meaning it will be
difficult to pick up on radar. Great Britain, Canada, Australia and
Italy are among a group of nations that have contributed to the
fighter’s cost.
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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