Pratt & Whitney says it has demonstrated that the F-22’s F119 engine meets its operational service life requirements. Company officials said they successfully completed accelerated mission testing of an F119 production engine, simulating 15 years of operational service compressed into four years of tests, during which the engine ran for nearly 1,700 hours. “This is a clear and unequivocal demonstration of the outstanding durability and reliability of the F119 engine system and all of its components,” said Bennett Croswell, vice president of F119 and F135 engine programs, in the company’s release. Following the testing, engineers disassembled the engine; inspections revealed that all the parts were in excellent condition, according to the company. The F135, which powers the F-35, is derived from F119 technology. Tom Johnson, Pratt’s chief F135 engineer, said the F119 durability test “is a very good indicator for the [F135’s] future performance.”
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force has unveiled a new electronic warfare drone designed to fly with fighter jets into contested airspace, including alongside its fleet of F-35s. RAF says it plans to develop models that draw on the U.S. Air Force’s approach of mating unmanned systems with crewed platforms.