Fairfield jet engine manufacturer GE Aviation on Thursday offered to fund continued development of the recently terminated alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter through 2012 at its Ohio plant, The Associated Press reports. East Hartford rival Pratt & Whitney Co. is the warbird’s primary engine builder.
The GE Electric Co. unit in Evendale, a Cincinnati suburb, has been developing the F136 engine for about 15 years, but the 2011 U.S. defense budget contained no money for the alternate engine and the Department of Defense recently issued an order to stop work on it.
GE’s proposal came a day after a House panel moved toward reviving the engine over the objections of President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who have strongly opposed the program, calling it wasteful spending.
Defense spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said Thursday that the department’s position has not changed.
GE makes the engine with London-based Rolls-Royce.
The jet’s main engine is built by the Pratt & Whitney unit of Hartford-based United Technologies Corp.
GE Aviation and congressional supporters have argued that development of the alternate engine would provide competition that would eventually save taxpayer money.
