No Funding for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter

We are on the verge of winning a multiyear battle against one of Washington’s most intractable special-interest boondoggles, but I need your help today to succeed.

The House and Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittees will begin marking up their fiscal year 2011 Defense Appropriations bills this week, and I urge you to tell your U.S. Representative and Senators to oppose funding for the wasteful, unnecessary alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is siphoning off billions of taxpayer dollars from other vital national defense priorities.

Both the Bush and Obama Administrations have tried to cancel the alternate engine because the Department of Defense has repeatedly said it does not want or need program. The U.S. Air Force and two independent panels have concluded that an alternate engine is “not necessary and not affordable” and that the alleged savings from creating a “mock competition” will never be achieved.

However, members of Congress with facilities in their states and districts where the alternate engine would be built have kept the program alive with $1.2 billion in self-serving earmarks since 2004!

Just completing testing and getting the alternate engine ready for production is estimated to cost $2.9 billion on top of what has previously been spent -- when the original engine contracted by the Pentagon for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has already received approval and is being manufactured and tested in aircraft right now.

The F-35 is designed to serve as the cornerstone of our nation’s future aerial defense capabilities by replacing the aging fighter and strike aircraft of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marines. If the Department of Defense has to maintain two engines with different parts and technicians and requiring different upgrades over time, the overall cost of the F-35 program will climb dramatically, and America’s warfighters will get fewer of these vitally needed aircraft.

In fact, Air Force General Mark Shackelford testified before a Senate subcommittee last year that funding an alternate engine would mean cutting two to four aircraft in 2009 and as many as 53 in the next five years.

Christine, this could not be a more clear-cut case of members of Congress jeopardizing the safety of our troops and this nation so that they can "bring home the bacon"! The alternate engine is not only a catastrophic waste of tax dollars at a time when America can least afford it, it is also an obscene politicization of the Defense Budget.

CBS Evening News has called the alternate engine, “the engine no one wants.” The Houston Chronicle dubbed it, “pork with wings,” and both Politico and RedState have called it the new “Bridge to Nowhere.”

What’s more, a recent Clarus Research Group survey found that 87 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement: “If America’s military leaders at the Pentagon determine that a multibillion-dollar defense contract with a private company is wasteful and unnecessary, Congress should NOT spend the money.”

Christine, in the face of record budget deficits, we have indications that members of Congress may be losing their appetite for this pork. That’s why I urge you right now to tell your tell your U.S. Representative and Senators to oppose any effort to fund the alternate engine in the fiscal 2011 Defense Appropriations Act.

Sincerely,


Thomas A. Schatz
President

P.S. Retired General John Michael Loh, former Air Force vice chief of staff and a former commander of the Air Force’s aircraft and engine acquisition center, wrote in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “Alternate engines for military aircraft are not necessary…Alternate systems add cost, complexity and safety problems. They don’t pay economically or operationally. The F-35 alternate engine program flies in the face of smart acquisition policies. It is a contrived competition ginned up by special interests in Congress.” Tell your U.S. Representative and Senators today that you want them to put a stop to this wasteful boondoggle!



The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the nation's largest taxpayer watchdog organization with more than one million members and supporters nationwide. CCAGW is a 501(c)(4) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that lobbies for legislation to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Contributions to CCAGW are not tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes. For more information about CCAGW, visit http://www.ccagw.org/ Make a contribution today to help CCAGW wage and win this battle to stop this multibillion-dollar waste of Defense Budget funds.