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SCENE
P&W Military Engines follows up $2 billion F135
contract award with new initiatives
Not content with winning a $2
billion award on May 31 to build
135 F135 engines for the Low
Rate Initial Production Lot 11 (LRIP
11) of F-35 Lightning II fighters,
Pratt & Whitney Military Engines
announced a variety of significant
new initiatives in June.
At Pratt & Whitney’s annual media
event, held on June 12 at the offices
of the company’s digital-initiative
accelerator unit in Brooklyn, New
York, Pratt & Whitney Military
Engines head Matthew Bromberg
described a series of new efforts
launched by the company. These
include the establishment of a $2
billion spares inventory for military
customers and the creation of
digital depot and fleet command
initiatives to make the engine
maintenance, repair and overhaul
(MRO) process more efficient and
reduce the time military engines
require for work during scheduled
and unscheduled MRO shop visits.
Also among the new initiatives
revealed by Bromberg is the
formation by Pratt & Whitney of
a new, Skunk Works-like, Florida-
based unit called GatorWorks,which will function outside the
mainstream operations of Pratt &
Whitney. GatorWorks will focus on
developing new military-engineprojects – particularly smaller
engines and projects forming
parts of larger potential engine
development and productionprogrammes – twice as fast as
and for half the cost of traditional
new-engine procurement cycles.
Chris KjelgaardF135 Low Rate Initial Production Lot 11
Beginning in August (before F135
production of the LRIP 10 batch is
totally complete), Pratt & Whitney
will begin assembling the 135 F135s
the F-35 Joint Program Office has
ordered for LRIP 11. The company
should complete LRIP 11 production
during 2019. The contract covers
engines for a total of 110 F-35A
Conventional Take-Off and Landing
and F-35C Carrier Variant versions
of the Lightning II, plus 25 engines
(and their associated Rolls-Royce
LiftSystems) for the F-35B Short
Take-Off and Vertical Landing
version of the aircraft.
Bromberg noted the unit recurring
flyaway (URF) price for the 110 F-35A
and F-35C engines will be 0.34% less
than the negotiated LRIP 10 URF
price, while the LRIP 11 URF price for
the 25 F-35B engines will be 3.39%
lower than the LRIP 10 URF price.
He added: “To date we have taken
52% of the F135 production cost
down and we’re targeting [another]
18% reduction as the [production]
learning curve stabilises out. We’re
also focusing on sustainment [i.e.,
spares support and MRO] cost
reduction – we’re targeting a 50%
reduction. We’re offering fifth-
generation performance for fourth-
generation cost.”With the LRIP 11 engine batch,
Pratt & Whitney is continuing to
ramp up F135 production, planning
to complete 110 engines (plus or
minus five) this year compared to
about 75 engines in 2017. Bromberg
confirmed that, although production
of the LRIP 11 batch will start inAugust, the eighth month of the year,
P&W will assemble more engines
from LRIP 11 this year than LRIP- By the end of the summer, the
company will have built 400 F135s in
total. Beyond 2018, and depending
on the sizes of future F-35 and
associated F135 production awards,
P&W plans to continue to increase
the F135 production rate by about
20 engines a year until it reaches its
planned final, full-rate production of
180 engines per year – a rate which
it appears Pratt & Whitney could
reach by 2022, perhaps even 2021.
Chris KjelgaardAn F135 engine on one of Pratt & Whitney’s assembly lines. Pratt & WhitneyPratt & Whitney’s F135 engine, successfully demonstrated hot-life capability during Accelerated Mission Testing at the Arnold
Engineering Development Complex at Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma, Tennessee. This photo shows an F135 in the facility’s
Engine Test Facility sea level 2 test cell. Rick Goodfriend/Arnold Engineering Development Complex