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Shoot me, before the pain returns, because the Great Engine War of Words (GEWW) is revving up again. Next week the Pentagon will release its FY2012 budget request, which likely won't contain money for the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 alternate engine, and Congress will take up the stalled FY2011 budget, which may or may not end up with money in it for the F136. In a bid to get out ahead, Pratt & Whitney held a media roundtable in Washington today (Feb 10). The first item of news was that Pratt has a "handshake" with the JSF program office on the...

Pratt & Whitney has reached an informal agreement with government officials to slash 16% off the total price of the next batch of 37 engines to be ordered for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. At the same time, the company acknowledges the cost of the overall F135 engine development programme will grow by about $1 billion to support a three-year extension of flight tests and to improve the engine's performance and durability. Company officials also confirm a debate exists within the programme over slightly boosting the thrust of the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant in...

It’s not often the Pentagon’s top testers use the term “screech” to describe a problem with a weapons system, but that’s just what they are calling a problem with Pratt & Whitney’s engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. “The [JSF] program began implementing plans to modify test aircraft to rectify the afterburner ‘screech’ problem, a problem that prevents the engine from sustaining full thrust. These modifications are necessary for the test aircraft to complete envelope expansion at the planned tempo,” said the annual report by Michael Gilmore, director of Operational Test and Evaluation. My colleagues at Defense News first reported...

The Pentagon's declaration this month that it intends to cut back on purchases of Joint Strike Fighters could mean nearly $2 billion in lost engine sales in the next five years for Pratt & Whitney, which is counting on the next-generation aircraft to support its Connecticut factories. That figure is the estimate of an analyst who is an expert on the aerospace industry and its defense programs. Pratt President David Hess downplayed the U.S. defense secretary's announcement that purchases would be cut by 28 percent, which includes 13 fewer of the F-35 fighters in the fiscal year that starts Oct....

Monday, 21 September 2009, 07:38 C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 000568 SIPDIS EO 12958 DECL: 09/17/2019 TAGS MARR, MOPS, NATO, PINS, PREL, NL SUBJECT: NETHERLANDS/JSF: CONCERN ABOUT SECOND ENGINE REF: A. THE HAGUE 271 B. THE HAGUE 264 C. THE HAGUE 543 Classified By: POLECON Counselor Andrew C. Mann for reasons 1.5(b,d) Summary This cable relays concerns from the US embassy in the Hague that unless greater US support is giving to the development of a second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, it might jeopardise Dutch involvement in the project...

Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine has surpassed 20,000 test hours as it completes the ground development and demonstration phase of the program. The F135 accumulated 3,600 test hours during the concept demonstration phase, 15,800 test hours during development and more than 700 hours powering the F-35 Lightning II flight test program. In addition, the F135 team has completed all rigorous STOVL testing required to successfully achieve the initial service release milestone. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company. “Pratt & Whitney is proud of the F135’s performance in the successful ground and flight test programs,” said Bennett...

Pratt & Whitney has unveiled a new cost-reduction goal as the F135 engine programme nears the end of a seven-year testing phase that was partly marred by cost overruns. The 250th F135 delivered for the Lockheed Martin F-35 will match prices with the less powerful F119 installed on the Lockheed F-22, says Bennett Croswell, P&W vice-president of F135 and F119 engine programmes. Croswell's pledge comes less than 18 months after P&W launched a "war on cost" because the joint programme office expressed concerns about creeping prices. A key concern focused on the F135 programme's learning curve, a statistical model that...

The F-35C’s Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, contained in its Engine Shipping System, is too large for the cargo door on a standard carrier onboard delivery plane and for the V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft, the program office acknowledged in a response to a follow-on query from Navy Times. The engine can be broken down into five component parts, but just its power module and packaging alone won’t fit into the COD or the V-22. The JSF Program Office says the V-22 Osprey, like the MH-53E helicopter, can externally carry the F135 engine module, the heaviest of the five components, at least...

An important skirmish in the battle over military spending is taking place in this industrial suburb of Cincinnati. At stake is a program to develop an alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, a stealthy, supersonic jet supposed to be the backbone of the U.S. fighter fleet for the next three decades. For the past four years, Congress has funded the development of the second engine against the wishes of the Pentagon, which maintains that only a Pratt & Whitney engine should be funded. View Full Image Reuters Congress could decide within days whether to fund a second engine for...

The continuing debate regarding the merits of an extra engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter surrounds a prime example of the waste that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is trying to eliminate. Support for an extra engine is another case of parochial interests trying to trump efficiency and military readiness. The F-35 second engine was not included in the Defense Department plan during or before my tenure as deputy secretary. Every military service vice chief testified with me to Congress that the second engine was too costly and not needed—or wanted. Regardless, each year funding was still added by Congress,...

Pentagon acquisition boss Ashton Carter today once again defended the Defense Department’s choice to forgo competition for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter engine program while delivering a speech on how the Pentagon can buy smart in a time of flat defense budgets. “We can’t afford to buy two of everything,” said Carter during a speech at the Center for American Progress in Washington today. He added that the push to compete the GE-Rolls Royce F136 alternate JSF engine against Pratt & Whitney’s F135 will not result in “real competition.” Instead, the effort will result in two manufactures receiving...

The Pratt & Whitney F135 short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant propulsion system took one more step toward government certification recently with the successful completion of one of the most rigorous, demanding tests in the entire qualification program. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp.company. The high temperature margin test which took place at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) in Tennessee involves intentionally running the engine to turbine temperatures beyond design conditions while simultaneously operating the turbomachinery at or above 100 percent of design conditions

Israel’s F-35 engine selection in dispute between rival manufacturers By Stephen Trimble An announced engine selection for Israel's first batch of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters has sparked a new dispute between both rival manufacturers. Pratt & Whitney says the company has received a verbal commitment by Israel to buy the F135 engine to power the first batch of 20 F-35s ordered under a $2.75 agreement signed last week. The General Electric/Rolls-Royce team developing the F136 alternate engine claims the selection process remains ongoing. "We fully anticipate we will have an opportunity to compete with the F136" in Israel, a General...

The cost overrun on the main engine for the Lockheed Martin Corp , F-35 fighter jet has grown by $600 million over the past year, despite tough cost-cutting measures by engine maker Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp , a Navy document shows. The total cost to complete the Pratt F135 engine is now estimated to be $7.28 billion -- $2.5 billion more than the $4.8 billion initially projected for the engine, according to the document, which was first reported by Aviation Week magazine on its website on Wednesday. That is an increase of $600 million from...

GE's Alternative Engine Program Also Facing Hiccups During Development By David A. Fulghum 06/02/2006 Developing an engine with all the necessary power and flexibility to both fly supersonic and then land - vertically - a stealthy, bomb-carrying fighter is proving to be a tough proposition for all the engine companies involved. Officials at General Electric, developer of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's alternate engine program, confirmed that they've had problems with a prototype engine that was designed in conjunction with partner Rolls-Royce. Its role is to test advanced parts destined for use in a more mature System Development and Demonstration...