50% of F-135 parts thrown out

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/07/28/heinz-smacks-pratt-over-f-135-costs/

In other JSF news, the program’s top officer, Marine Brig. Gen. David Heinz, took Pratt and Whitney to task for quality control problems with its F-135 engine that have resulted in up to 50 percent of parts being thrown away because they do not meet the high standards required by the JSF program. “I am pushing very hard on Pratt to do better,” Heinz told me when I asked him about cost increases in the engine program. He said he expects Heinz to improve to the point where 80 percent of parts meet his standards. Heinz’s criticism come at a crucial point in the debate over the second engine program, with the Obama administration pressing to kill the F-136 and the Senate having voted last week to do just that.

Heinz would not be drawn on whether he supported a second engine program, which Congress says is necessary to spur competition and lower costs. When I pressed him, Heinz noted that there are historic tests of engine competition, a clear reference to the famed engine wars of the F-16 program. If congressional aides or their bosses were to press him for an answer consistent with his best military judgment I bet he would tell them they need a second engine program to keep the heat on Pratt.

50% of parts rejected? and they hope to eventually improve to ‘only’ 20% rejected?

i think it’s pretty clear the only way to keep heat on pratt is to aim an F136 at them