A big chunk of the new cost overruns are associated with the GE/RR engine program, which is in place only because the allies wanted another engine - oh, and GE wanted some piece of the pie too.
The F136 is the engine white elephant that won’t die, no matter how many times an administration shoots at it. The budgets proposed by the executive branch in FY2007, FY2008, FY2009, FY2010 have all proposed canning the F136 engine.
Last I knew this year, the Pentagon once again wanted to can the engine, and Congress was pushing to put funding back in. I don’t know what the current outcome of funding for the F-136 is. I know that GE/RR are making a big deal that they’re “self-funding” the F136 program now, but I also know that as soon as P&W wants to make any increase in the various program goals for the F135 engine, there’s supposed to be a new competitive bid for an engine. So let’s say that P&W wants to bid a version of their engine with increased thrust. That means a new bid gets opened, which means that we’re going to see the F136 come back in.
In every year an administration has proposed canning the F-136 engine, Congress has restored funding. Why? Because Britain keeps lobbying Congress to keep the F-136 GE/RR engine project alive for the F-35, that’s why. The Dutch are said to question their future participation as a partner in the F-35 program without the F-136 engine.
Kill it, put a stake through it, let the “allies” develop their own plane on their own budgets.
If you ask some of the Euro-centrics, they claim that the JSF is an American conspiracy to destroy their domestic defense base!! Are issues related to the aircraft gaining weight, avionics and systems integrations also all related to the F-136? The F-35 was and is an American aircraft, no point blaming the allies for it.