Air Force Times reports that “despite ongoing restrictions on the fleet of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, the US Air Force’s top general warned against being ‘alarmist’ when discussing the fifth-generation jet’s engine.”  

“’Pratt & Whitney has been making pretty darn good engines for single-engine airplanes for a long time for the United States Air Force,’ Gen. Mark Welsh, service chief of staff, told reporters during a media briefing. ‘What we found in the program so far, with these almost 9,000 sorties so far, is this engine works pretty well, too. That day it didn’t, and we need to figure out why.’”  

“’It would be a little alarmist to assume we have a problem with the F-35 engine,’ Welsh said. ‘The F-35 is the answer, the only answer, to ensure future air campaigns are not a fair fight.’”