General 
Electric and Rolls Royce announced Thursday that they will “bear all costs for continued development” of the F136 engine for the F-35 strike fighter through the end of Fiscal 2012. “We believe so strongly in our engine and the need for competition in defense procurement that we have committed to self-fund F136 development costs for this fiscal year and next,” said GE CEO Jeff Immelt in the companies’ joint statement. Previously they had committed to funding the engine’s development on their own dime through the end of this fiscal year. GE Aviation spokesman Rick Kennedy told the Daily Report Thursday that the two companies estimate spending “more than $100 million” to keep F136 engine work going through the end of next fiscal year. “The [engine’s] development program is being stretched out, especially given that the [F-35] aircraft program is also moving to the right,” he said. “The objective is to develop the engine at a pace to be ready to compete in 2016.” Continue
The F-47 fighter will be run differently than previous fighter programs and share the same mission systems architecture as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. That means advances in one will fuel advances in the other.