General Electric and Rolls-Royce are dissolving the Fighter Engine Team (FET) after deciding to discontinue self-funding the F136 alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The move comes after an Oct. 31 meeting between GE Aviation leadership and Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter in which "it became clear that the Defense Department would not support the FET self-funding effort," says GE. Although not unexpected given the Defense Department's termination of the F136 development effort in April, it ends a 15-year effort to mount a competitive challenge to Pratt & Whitney's incumbent F135 engine for the F-35. With almost 80% of the development complete at the time of the Defense Department announcement, and with about $3 billion in federal funding already spent on the effort, GE and Rolls both vowed to continue self-funding the F136 through fiscal year 2012. However, GE says Carter's position "made future progress on the F136 development program difficult. In addition, the status of the federal budget has created greater uncertainty for the overall JSF program."
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