The price of F135 engines, which power the F-35 fighter, will drop again in the ninth and 10th production lots. The F-35 System Program Office announced on Jan. 15 a “handshake deal” with Pratt & Whitney for the work, which will produce 52 conventional/carrier takeoff motors in Lot 9 and 87 in Lot 10 at 3.4 percent less than the Lot 8 negotiated price. For the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing version, the 13 Lot 9 and 14 Lot 10 motors and associated lift systems went down 6.4 percent from the Lot 8 price. Both deals include program management, engineering support, production non-recurring work, spare parts, and modules. The agreement “continues to drive down costs, and that’s critical to making the F-35 more affordable for the US military and our allies,” SPO Director Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said in a statement. To date, Pratt has delivered 262 F135 engines. Lot 9 deliveries begin this year and Lot 10 in 2017. The agreement will be signed at a later date.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
