British Prime Minister Tony Blair has sent a letter to President Bush urging that he retain development of a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Reuters news service reports that an unnamed British official said the letter was sent shortly before Christmas. British defense contractor Rolls Royce is teamed with General Electric to produce an alternate JSF engine. It would seem that the imminent-demise speculation is correct. Of course, a prudent Pentagon would have foreseen a Blair attack and prepared the Administration for a British backlash, right
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.

