GE/Rolls Royce abandon self funding for F-35 engine

[The Inspector]

General Electric and Rolls Royce announced that in the face of rising expenses that they Will end participation in the alternate engine program for the F-35 fighter, leaving Pratt & Whitney as sole source of F-35 engines.
The GE/Rolls consortium has been self funding the development program and has decided to withdraw rather than continue the program development through 2012 @ great expense.

[CAPFlyer]

About time someone woke up.

[The Inspector]

I'll bet it upset one chain smoking golfer-

[cooper9411]

I'm sure Pratt & Whitney are very happy about this.

[CAPFlyer]

I don't think Pratt really cared. They won the original contract fair and square, were vendicated not once but twice by the GAO, had at least 3 Congressional investigations find the same thing (that the contract was good) and that GE/RR were just mad they lost. GE/RR wasted a lot of their own money they didn't need to waste on a contract they had no real chance of getting, especially considering they continued to have major technical issues with the engine. If I was a shareholder in either company, I would've been calling for the heads of everyone involved in such a foolhardy endeavor as it wasn't good business.