Pratt & Whitney should be able to cut costs on the F-35’s engine now that it’s been named as the builder of engines for the B-21 bomber, Joint Strike Fighter program manager Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said Thursday. Speaking at a McAleese and Associates seminar in Washington, D.C., Bogdan said, “I think there’re some things that we learned on the F135 at Pratt & Whitney that will greatly benefit” the new bomber. “And at the same time, I think that Pratt & Whitney ought to be looking to drive the cost of the F135 engine down now that they have that other business. I would expect them to.” Bogdan said technology developed for each of the engines should have application to the other, and there should also be economies on overhead from producing parts and full-up engines in the same locations. Though Bogdan seemed to confirm that the F135 core will be used in the B-21, he backed away from that with reporters, saying he is not involved with the bomber program and has no insight into its particulars.
United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is slated to fly its second national security mission in February—nearly six months after its first operational launch and almost a year after it was certified to fly military payloads for the Space Force.
