Osama Dies, Worthless War Tech Is Immortal In Congress

[n2doc]

Updated, 6:05 p.m.

Four days after the death of Osama bin Laden, members of Congress sent a message to Leon Panetta, the CIA director nominated to become the next secretary of defense. It concerns jet engines — and the defense budget. And it goes something like this:

Dear Leon,

You know what was nifty? You killing Osama. It’s funny — Bob Gates, your predecessor, didn’t kill Osama. But you know what he did kill? The second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. Leon, we love you just the way you are.

After a five year struggle with Congress, the Defense Department cut the propulsive heart out of the family of jets called the Joint Strike Fighter, leaving the planes with a single engine as a propulsion system. Both the Bush and Obama administrations assessed that the second engine, built by GE and Rolls Royce and known as the F136, was a superfluous expense, tacking an extra $450 million onto the defense budget every year. Finally, the delayed budget for fiscal 2011 didn’t include funding for the F136 engine and the Pentagon cancelled the GE/Rolls Royce contract last month.

It looked like the engine’s biggest enemy, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, had won. But supporters, like Rep. Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, vowed to bring the engine back from the dead after Gates retires this summer. On Thursday, McKeon got a move on.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/05/congress-and-extra-jet-engines-a-love-story/

Zombies....