Sec. 10302. Sense on Congress on the small turbine engine industrial base
317 words·~1 min read·
/bill/115/hr/2810/eas/section-10302·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress makes the following findings: The United States small turbine engine industry has been innovating, developing, producing, and sustaining small gas turbine engines in a competitive market for more than 75 years. The United States small turbine engine industrial base has made the United States the knowledge leader in low cost, no maintenance engine designs with unmatched field reliability. The United States small turbine engine industrial base is at a critical juncture, as military requirements have tapered and missile programs, in misguided attempts to save money, are narrowing production contracts to a single vendor causing two of the three existing small turbine engine manufacturers to go out of business.
The departure of these companies from the United States small turbine engine industry will leave only one viable, proven source for small turbine engines for the Department of Defense. In 2016, a number of engine failures were encountered that severely diminished the throughput of the F107–WR–101 engine maintenance process for the AGM–86 Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM), thereby putting the weapon system at major readiness risk. The narrowing of the United States small turbine engine industrial base would leave the Department with a sole source United States supplier resulting in a loss of manufacturing and testing capability that would be extremely detrimental to both the United States industrial base and national security by creating a single point of failure, increasing engine procurement and testing prices by eliminating competition, raising new engine development and air vehicle program risk, and eliminating capabilities and expertise that would require decades and millions of dollars to reconstitute.
It is the sense of the Congress that the Department of Defense should— allocate sufficient funding to properly sustain the F107 turbine engine in order to ensure this vital weapon is viable until a replacement is fielded; and contract with multiple, capable engine manufacturers to stabilize and revitalize the United States small turbine engine industrial base.