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Council News
Jonathan Paris Discusses Syrian Crisis with France 24
Jonathan Paris, nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, appeared on France 24 to discuss Russia's support for the Assad regime and what it means for a possible UN resolution against Syria.
Damon Wilson US Senate Testimony: Ukraine at a Crossroads
On February 1, Atlantic Council executive vice president Damon Wilson testified at a hearing of the US Senate Committe on Foreign Relations on the topic: "Ukraine at a Crossroads: What's at Stake for the US and Europe?"
Michele Dunne on US-Egypt Relations for NPR's Morning Edition
Relations between the US and Egypt have taken a downturn since Egyptian authorities raided the offices of seventeen nongovernmental organizations in December - three of them US-funded. Michele Dunne, director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, spoke on NPR's Morning Edition about the situation and what it means for US aid to Egypt.
Atlantic Council SAG Members Nominated for Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature
The Oxford Handbook of War, edited by Atlantic Council Strategic Advisors Group members Julian Lindley-French and Yves Boyer, has been nominated for the prestigious Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature awarded by the Royal United Services Institute.
FEATURED ISSUE
The South Asia Center receives guidance and support from many experts throughout the world. Our senior fellows, guest-speakers, Center patrons, and visitors contribute heavily to the Center’s mission to “wage peace,” and engage the international community in the region. The Center asked our contributors the simple, but key question, “What you do expect in 2012?”
REGISTER
Defense Procurement Politics: F-35 Backup Boondoggle
Sarwar Kashmeri | August 09, 2010
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is one of the most respected voices in Washington. Which is why it was so surprising to hear the Senator come out in support of a defense project that is opposed by the military, the secretary of defense, and by President Obama, as being expensive and unnecessary.
The project is a second, spare engine for the F-35, the military's next generation jet fighter - a high technology weapon system that will be shared across the military, for a significant savings in defense costs.
The F-35 is powered by engines made by Pratt and Whitney. The spare engine would be made by General Electric and Britain's Rolls Royce. GE has a plant in Rutland, [VT] which is where Senator Leahy announced his support a few days ago.
The case for the spare engine rests on two arguments. Since the F-35 program will span 25 years or more, a spare engine, its supporters say, would make sure there was competition for the life of the fighter. Making a spare engine would be kind of nipping at the heels of Pratt and Whitney to force the company to keep its costs in line.
The second argument is, what if something went wrong with the P&W engine and the entire fleet of F-35s was grounded. Shouldn't there be an insurance policy to safeguard the nation's defenses?
Well, as I see it, both arguments are fallacious.
The F-35's engine was already selected in a competitive acquisition strategy, and a spare engine that was never in the original plan will need a further investment of billions of dollars before it becomes a viable insurance policy - if it ever does. As for reliability, the F-35's engine is built on the foundation of the engine that powers today's F22 fighters, that have been in service for almost 20 years, an engine that has flown hundreds of thousands of hours, and is known for its rock-solid reliability.
We live in a time when health care costs for the military have mushroomed from $19 billion dollars to $50 billion dollars in a decade. Military personnel are committing suicide in record numbers, and numerous recent articles have detailed how the scarcity of money is affecting the care provided to thousands of brave warriors wounded in the interminable wars of Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not the time for politics in defense procurement.
If the Air Force, the Navy, The Marine Corps, The Secretary of Defense, and the President of the United States want to kill this unnecessary, expensive, spare engine - why lobby for it?
Sarwar A. Kashmeri is senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's International Security Program, and host of the New Atlanticist Podcast Series. This article originated as an interview by VPR. Photo credit: AP Photo.
