[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 144 (Thursday, September 7, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5070-S5071]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 843. Mr. STRANGE submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by 
him to the bill H.R. 2810, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 
2018 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, 
to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for 
other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

       At the end of subtitle B of title III, add the following:

     SEC. 313. SENSE ON CONGRESS ON THE SMALL TURBINE ENGINE 
                   INDUSTRIAL BASE.

       (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The United States small turbine engine industry has 
     been innovating, developing, producing, and sustaining small 
     gas turbine engines in a competitive market for more than 75 
     years.
       (2) The United States small turbine engine industrial base 
     has made the United States

[[Page S5071]]

     the knowledge leader in low cost, no maintenance engine 
     designs with unmatched field reliability.
       (3) The United States small turbine engine industrial base 
     is at a critical juncture, as military requirements have 
     tapered and missile programs, in misguided attempts to save 
     money, are narrowing production contracts to a single vendor 
     causing two of the three existing small turbine engine 
     manufacturers to go out of business.
       (4) The departure of these companies from the United States 
     small turbine engine industry will leave only one viable, 
     proven source for small turbine engines for the Department of 
     Defense.
       (5) In 2016, a number of engine failures were encountered 
     that severely diminished the throughput of the F107-WR-101 
     engine maintenance process for the AGM-86 Air Launched Cruise 
     Missile (ALCM), thereby putting the weapon system at major 
     readiness risk.
       (6) The narrowing of the United States small turbine engine 
     industrial base would leave the Department with a sole source 
     United States supplier resulting in a loss of manufacturing 
     and testing capability that would be extremely detrimental to 
     both the United States industrial base and national security 
     by creating a single point of failure, increasing engine 
     procurement and testing prices by eliminating competition, 
     raising new engine development and air vehicle program risk, 
     and eliminating capabilities and expertise that would require 
     decades and millions of dollars to reconstitute.
       (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of the Congress 
     that the Department of Defense should--
       (1) allocate sufficient funding to properly sustain the 
     F107 turbine engine in order to ensure this vital weapon is 
     viable until a replacement is fielded; and
       (2) contract with multiple, capable engine manufacturers to 
     stabilize and revitalize the United States small turbine 
     engine industrial base.
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