F-35 Engine Reliability is "Very Poor"

A congressional review of the F-35's engine systems has found their reliability to be, "very poor."

Bloomberg reports that the Government Accountability Office has determined the engine quality is so poor that it could ruin plans to speed up production to fulfill the US government's order of 2,443 planes for the Marines, Air Force, and Navy. The total cost of the planes would be at least $391 billion.

That figure may increase because the engines need to be redesigned, and F-35's that have already been completed need to have their engine systems retrofitted. As it stands, the F-35 is already the most expensive weapon system in US history.

Further increasing the likelihood that the program will cost more than the original $391 billion are issues with the planes software and operating system.

There are two models of the F-35. One is a standard take off model which will be used by the Navy and Air Force. The Marines will receive a model that is capable of both standard and vertical take off. Both variants' development is far behind schedule.

The Marines version has only flown for 47 hours between engine failures even though it was supposed to have flown 90 at the time the GAO evaluated the program. The Navy and Air Force version has been even worse, with 25 hours between engine failures when it should be 120.

The company manufacturing the engines, Pratt & Whitney, says that the engines are up to their standards, and the GAO is misconstruing key metrics to measure to the engines' success. The company says they have already instituted a number of design changes to improve reliability.

The GAO says that while this is true, those changes have yet to be fully flight tested.