Opposition mounts to budget plan to drop jet engine program

Posted on: Feb. 9th, 2006 || Source: newsday.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

Opposition mounts to budget plan to drop jet engine program

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's budget plan to eliminate a jet fighter engine made mainly in Ohio is "not sound business," the state's two senators said in a letter Wednesday to the chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

Sens. George Voinovich and Mike DeWine, both Republicans, said a backup to the main F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine contract with Connecticut-based Pratt & Whitney is essential to keeping prices down and work quality high.

"History shows that dual-source competition produces a better, safer, more reliable and less expensive product," DeWine and Voinovich wrote in the letter to Sen. John Warner, R-Va., citing the F-16 engine project. "If the contract is canceled, all of the money that American taxpayers have invested will be lost, as well as potential savings in the years to come."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that eliminating the program would save about $1.8 billion.

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