New Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missiles By Greg Hadley The Pentagon’s top research lab is interested in developing a hypersonic cruise missile prototype that provides “a revolutionary leap in operational performance,” as the first wave of U.S. hypersonic weapons enters production...
Adaptive Engine Transition Program
GE Aerospace CEO H. Lawrence Culp is urging the Pentagon to press on with the Navy F/A-XX fighter program, arguing that it will further the development of adaptive engine technology—which faces delays in the Air Force’s latest budget.
Engines from GE Aerospace and RTX’s Pratt & Whitney have cleared the Air Force’s “Detailed Design Reviews” for the Next-Generation Adaptive Propulsion program, paving the way for the engine-makers to build prototype ground demonstrators, the two companies announced separately. The...
There are a lot of new demands on the government-industry propulsion enterprise—ranging from exquisite new fighter engines to cheap, off-the-shelf powerplants for drones—that will require sustained support, experts said.
The Air Force wants to spend $1.3 billion to finish designing two competitive engines to power the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter, budget documents show. They say the designs are well along, and the timing of the request indicates production could begin by 2028.
The engines for the hyper-secret Next Generation Air Dominance fighter will be a different size than the adaptive engines developed for an F-35 upgrade, but many of the technologies will “port over” to the new powerplant, the Air Force’s propulsion czar told reporters Aug. 1.
“The F-35 is the most advanced fighter yet built, but decisions and compromises imposed on it more than a decade ago continue to push up its cost, decrease its reliability, limit its performance, and constrain its ability to exploit new technologies. For fighter pilots of ...
The F-35 Joint Program Office is sticking by its endorsement of Pratt & Whitney’s Engine Core Upgrade (ECU) for the F135 powerplant, saying the improvement will meet all the fighter’s future needs for power. But it declined to weigh in on the increasingly combative war ...
F-35 maker Lockheed Martin thinks the Pentagon should reverse course and pursue the more expensive but technologically advanced Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) for future versions of the fighter, rather than the more incremental F135 Engine Core Upgrade chosen by the Air Force in its ...
Pratt & Whitney would like to keep its monopoly on supplying powerplants for the F-35 fighter fleet and is pushing for the government to choose an upgrade of the F135 engine instead of an all-new adaptive engine, which it said would be far more costly ...
The Pentagon will soon decide whether to move ahead with a new engine for the F-35, and officials won’t simply table the issue indefinitely, Defense Department acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante said at an acquisition conference. He also said calls to break up the ...
Lockheed Martin suggested the long-term sales prospects for the F-35 are uncertain amid worries DOD may begin to pivot away from the program.