Is it a really a surprise?   It appears that the first Congressional Defense Committee to act on the FY10 defense budget request will again insist that the Pentagon invest (nay, take out of hide) some $603 millon in the alternate (nay, competitive) engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.  In an 11 June outline of the Chairman's Mark for the House Armed Services Commiitee (HASC) Subcommittee on Air & Land Forces obtained by DSJ, the subcommittee (again) requires that the Pentagon fund the GE/RollsRoyce F136 engine from allotted F-35 development funding -- costing the program two aircraft (from 30 to 28) -- and demands that DoD budget for the competitive engine beginning in the next (FY11) budget request it submits to the Congress.  The argument, of course is that competition saves money somewhere down the line.  Here's wondering, but seriously doubting, if Congress can summons the same "thou shall compete it" moxie with respect to the pending KC-X tanker recompete, where a second source might well be the only path towards getting the program underway.