Fighter jet engines unreliable, production could slow

Production on the U.S. Armed Forces’ most costly weapon system - the F-35 fighter jet - could slow down due to unreliability of aircraft engines, according to congressional auditors.

Presently, Congress has approved $17 billion of a projected $67 billion in spending for the engines. The total price tag is $391.1 billion for 2,443 planes to be purchased from contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.

Evaluations by the government accountability office on engine tests conducted in December for three different versions of the F-35 fighter jet found those systems are performing at less than half of their projected shelf life. A report by the GOA questioned the affordability of the plan given the flaws in the aircraft engines and software, according to Bloomberg Business.

United Technologies Corp. engine developers Pratt & Whitney say the GOA’s data does not account for new designs. According to the company, a model for the U.S. Marine Corps is at 71 percent reliability, while another for the Air Force is operating at 143 percent. A third model is being produced for the Navy.

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