Pratt & Whitney announced yesterday at the Paris Air Show that it has delivered the first production hardware for the engine enhancement package that it has been developing under Air Force sponsorship for the F100-PW-229 powerplant used on service F-15s and F-16s as well as Navy and foreign fighters. The EEP was created to reduce the cost of F100-PW-229 ownership dramatically by increasing its depot inspection intervals from 4,300 cycles to 6,000 cycles. This means that the engines will require scheduled depot maintenance only once every 10 to 14 years versus the current seven to nine years, thereby reducing expected lifecycle costs by 30 percent, the company said. The EEP incorporates technologies from the F-22’s F119 engine and the F135 engine under development for the F-35.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
