Forum: General F-35 Forum

The vote was supposedly to be in by the end of march as to dual or single sourcing on the F-35 program JSF. One minor problem though: there's a tremendous amout of money to be made off this deal and we need more time to figure out a way to get our peice of that pie.

I know, we can introduce a bill to form an independent group to investagate the possible spending of this overall appx. $258 billion. That would give us more time to think about getting our portions of the pie. If the group comes back and decides what we don't want them to decide then we can form another group to investagate any corruption in the first group. Ya, that's great but what do we tell the tax payers to keep them dumb deaf and blind. Oh, don't worry about that, we can form another group to over view the first two groups and tell the folks we got everything under control...

By the time this is over will, the taxpayers, will be lucky if we get a by-plane in the air. I guess we would have to then consider it an achivement because that by-plane will be told would have only cost us a few million $'s Doh

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What ARE you talking about? There is no sourcing question on the JSF. Lockheed Martin already won the contract.

He might be talking about <a href="f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-4639.html">the engine sourcing... P&W or GE</a>

WTF???

Hello everyone,

First roscue, yes Lockheed Martin is sitting fat and pretty on this deal because their versions of the JSF/F-35 program will be capable of excepting either the pratt F-135 or the GE F-136. They are single sourced for this program so their pretty much nutural as to how the dual/single decision goes.

Next, viper tomy, yes, you hit the nail right on the head. Pratts version has been built nose to tail in house and is now in the process of the ground testing. G.E.'s version is teamed up with roylals royce to produce the F-136 version., which is also on schedule, but now the issue has been raised as to the additional up front cost of the development stages of the engines, and additional apppx. 1.8 billion$. From working for some 25 years in development the additional up front cost has all ways been a given but the big picture shows that dual sourcing saves $.

Last, but not least mechfromhell, yes what's going on now is our government is about to spend the most $ than has been every been spent before on the future of the aging fleet of fighter aircraft. the next generation will be called the JSF, joint strike fighter program or F-35 fleet. The issue here is if you single source and aircfraft and the plane goes into the drink, which is highly unlikely due to the advanced warning systems on board, "BUT" if it did go down and was engine related, untill they determined the cause the entire fleet, world wide would by law have to be grounded. If it's dual sourced you could turn to your other supplier and at least have part of the fleet still in the air doing its job. the $ figure that's being tossed around is approximately 158 $ billion, not pocket change. The vote was suppose to be in by the end of march. now, the latest is someone has purposed establishing a commitee to re-evaluate the overall budget program of this particular program. It just appears that everone wants their cut of this very expensive pie.

One last issue. I had read when Rolls Royce had teamed up with G.E. everything was fine but now that all this possible going back to single sourcing issue has arisen I have read that RR approached Pratt and signed a tentative agrement for their nozzle version of the jet. talk about jumping ship! anyway, as it stands as of this moment no body seems to want to say anything. gee, i wonder what's going on. I'll give you this if I get that, sorry I shouldn't be synical about the workings of our well greased political arena. Rolling Eyes

Dude, chill. First, the statement that “. . . until they determined the cause the entire fleet, world wide would by law have to be grounded” is utter nonsense.

Second, RR did not jump ship and go to P&W. They’ve been working with P&W since the CDA program (Who do you think produced the lift fan and 3BSN for the X-35?). RR will be on all future F135 and F136 (if it survives) STOVL engines. That’s ALWAYS been the JSF plan. The “Brits” are working the main engine fan only for the F136.

I sense this is less about your great concern for national security and fiscal responsibility, and more about your boy at Lynn. When Ted Kennedy starts saying we ought to be spending more on defense, you know politics are involved.

Hello motorman,

In regards to my son, I was against him going into the plant. I wanted him to continue his education with at least a couple years of college, preferably majoring in metalergy and math. The last year he was in high school he entered a program run by the government, which was at one time called vica, now it's called skills u.s.a. He won the gold medal for the competition within his field. He then proceeded to the regional level, which he also won another gold medal. He went on to the state finals and there he won the silver medal. This is when I wanted him to further his education but he seen an opportunity to make good money with a very big company, so.... But we hope, his mother and i, that he will return to finish college with at least his associates degree in math and metalergy. The G.E. will look good on a resume but i feel he has a lot more in him than the G.E., possibly with his own ability and a little help that our family may be able to offer he may someday be working for NASA. Please don't misunderstand me. I'm gratefull he has a good job with good benefits it's just that i know he can do better, but that's something that only time will answer.

Now, the other issues you mentioned. you stated about the grounding of a fleet is utter nonsence. I'm not so sure about you expressing that to be nonscence. I seem to recall when I worked for G.E. we had and issue that related to exactly that which I posted on in regards to single sourcing and it's possible ill effects. I only wish I could recall what engine it was and the reason why the grounding of a particular fleet was the result untill the cause was determined. Either way i respect your feelings no matter what. The other matter of R&R jumping ship. I may have worded it incorrectly. Let me say this, when pratt and g.e. went into this competition on the jsf pratt built the engine from nose to tail. g.e. teamed up with R&R R&R building the fan and g.e. building the rest. When pratt found out that someone had purposed to go back to single sourcing that would have ment that if that did happen they would be left out of their slice of the pie. Can't have that. that's when they approached pratt and a memorandinum of agreement was signed. I being R&R would do the same thing. the one outfit sitting pretty in this whole picture is lockheed martin, they, like i said before have the airframe structured to except either the f-135 or the f-136 so they don't care either way, their peice of the pie is all ready been cut. the last thing you mention is exactly what i've been thinking all along, politics!!! All I see is a lot of people trying to get at a tremendous amount of tax payers $'s Thumb

I stand by my original comments.

hello motorman, I respect your opinions. I may not agree with what you say, but to each his own. AS its said,"different strokes for different folks". No disrespect or slander intended. best regards, J.R.

Forum: General F-35 Forum

Our piece of the pie