Mr. Chair and members of the committee, on behalf of Rolls-Royce and our GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team, thank you for inviting me here today. It is an honour and a privilege to have this opportunity to personally explain our involvement with the F136 engine on the F-35 JSF program.
Rolls-Royce has been a proud member of the Canadian high-technology landscape for more than 60 years. Our Canadian operations are headquartered in Montreal, and we currently employ 1,750 highly skilled Canadians in eight provinces, from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Vancouver, British Columbia. We are also an integral part of the global company that operates in four complex global marketplaces: civil aerospace; defence aerospace; marine, both commercial and naval; and energy. Each of these Rolls-Royce global businesses is fortunate to have world-class Canadian suppliers that help us compete in a fiercely competitive business environment. One such Canadian company, Magellan Aerospace of Toronto and Winnipeg, a substantial Rolls-Royce supplier for the F136 engine, also presented to you today.
Rolls-Royce is a long-standing and trusted supplier to the Canadian government and the Department of National Defence. As you may be aware, there are four Rolls-Royce engines on each of the 17 C-130J aircraft that are currently being delivered to the Canadian air force. Rolls-Royce also powers all of the air force's C-130 legacy aircraft, the CP-140 Aurora aircraft fleet, and the Hawk trainer fleet.
GE and Rolls-Royce together have developed the F136 engine for the F-35 aircraft, the aircraft recently selected by the Canadian government. From the engine perspective, we are currently in a competitive situation with the F135 engine produced by Pratt & Whitney of Hartford, Connecticut. The GE Rolls-Royce F136 engine has been designed solely for the F-35 aircraft and is a fifth-generation fighter engine utilizing the most advanced jet engine technology in the world today.
A number of key Canadian companies are partners on our F136 program, and we have a significant partnership with Canada's world-class National Research Council. This is all part of our F136 Canadian industrial participation plan, which we continue to develop. All Canadian partners will benefit from all of the F136 engines produced and sold for the global marketplace, not solely from those engines potentially sold to Canada.
However, the engine situation for the F-35 aircraft is more complex than I have just summarized. As a result of the near-term budgetary pressures faced by the U.S. administration and Congress, the funding of our F136 engine program is threatened for the fifth consecutive year. This is in spite of the fact that the majority of the F136 engine development program is now complete--and the many well-understood benefits that engine choice would produce.
Canada, together with the eight other JSF partner countries, signed the international production, sustainment, and follow-on development memorandum of understanding in late 2006. This MOU specifically stated that a choice of engines, the F136 or the F135, would be available to all partner nations. Customer countries could choose one or the other or both engines.
Should engine choice not be maintained through continued funding of the F136, an estimated $100 billion global engine monopoly will be handed to a single company, with all of the associated risks, elevated costs, and other demonstrated negative ramifications for the customer nations. There is no question that engine choice will provide reduced overall procurement and long-term sustainment costs.
Dan Ross testified to this committee that engine sustainment costs are as much as 50% of the total sustainment costs of the fleet. The independent U.S. government accountability office has objectively determined that engine competition for the F-35 program will save $20 billion over the life of the program, a significant saving that will directly translate to all partner nations.
Engine choice for the F-35 is in the best interests of our Canadian men and women in uniform, the Canadian government, and our Canadian taxpayers. Other partner nations recognize this fact and are now advocating directly for engine choice with their counterparts in the U.S. Congress. We urge Canada, in its best interests, to do the same.
Thank you very much.