The United States needs a competitive F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine program, and House appropriators will find funding for it without reducing jet purchases, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) told reporters today. For the past three years, the Pentagon and Congress have butted heads over the inclusion of an alternative engine program for the F-35 Lightning II. Each year the Defense Department has zeroed funding for the General Electric-Rolls-Royce F136 propulsion system, and congressional defense committees have in turn fully funded...
