[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 83 (Friday, May 28, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1006]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2011

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                               speech of

                        HON. JOHN M. SPRATT, JR.

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 27, 2010

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 5136) to 
     authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2011 for military 
     activities of the Department of Defense, to prescribe 
     military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
     other purposes:

  Mr. SPRATT. Mr. Chairman, I support the provisions in this bill that 
support a second engine for the F-35.
  The Air Force will soon shift its air-to-ground, air-to-air, and air-
supremacy roles to the F-35, and the F-35 will eventually number more 
than a thousand jet fighters, or 95 percent of the fighter force 
structure.
  To power these aircraft, the Air Force will require some 2500-3000 
engines at a cost of more than $100 billion.
  We are fortunate to have two excellent engine manufacturers, Pratt 
Whitney and GE. Both started out as candidates for the F-35 engine.
  The question now comes: Do we need and want a second engine, produced 
by GE?
  More specifically--
  Do we want to sole source, run this program out 25 years or more, 
without price competition?
  In addition to price competition, do we want competition on 
innovation, reliability, and durability?
  Do we want to run the operational risk of having no back-up if 
problems show up in one engine?
  Do we want to keep competition in the defense production base?
  A second engine for the F-35 makes sense and saves money.
  I urge the House to leave intact the second engine provisions in the 
defense authorization bill before us today.

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