Pratt & Whitney pushes ‘low risk’ F100 engine for potential Polish F-15EX order

A F-15EX fighter jet taxis to its parking spot at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio (US Air Force)

MSPO 2024 — When the F-15EX takes to the skies today, it is powered by a pair of General Electric F110-129 engines. But Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of RTX, used the first day of Poland’s International Defence Industry Exhibition (MSPO) to make the case that Warsaw not only can, but should, pick their F100 turbofan engine over the GE option.

There are, admittedly, a lot of “if/then” situations involved: First, Poland has to select the F-15EX over either the Eurofighter Typhoon or buying more Lockheed Martin F-35s, and then Polish officials would have to decide that rather than follow the US lead on engine supplier, it would be willing to go out on its own and pick the Pratt option.

But Josh Goodman, F100 program director at Pratt and Whitney, told reporters today that certification of the powerplant would only need a “low risk” integration period, consisting of a “couple of flight tests,” which would not have any “schedule implications” if Poland was to place an order.

“It’s really the engine to airframe interface that needs to be….validated or certified, however, no architecture changes to the engine” are required, he explained.

At a competitor level, Goodman claimed the F100 has a “superior thrust to weight ratio” compared to the F110, while stressing it also offers an architecture “that offers additional bleed and horsepower extraction margin,” to increase the performance of the F-15.

The “foundations” of F100 integration were laid down years ago, as part of the US Air Force’s F-15EX engine competition, said Goodman. In 2021, Pratt and Whitney ultimately lost out after General Electric secured a $1.6 billion F110 contract. (Since then, the Air Force’s original planned buy of 144 aircraft has been lowered to a program of record of 98 aircraft, unless Congress intervenes.)

The air dominance acquisition centers around procurement of 32 new fighter jets with the F-15EX facing competition from the Eurofighter Typhoon. Warsaw also holds the option of buying additional F-35A fifth generation jets, on top of a $6.4 billion order covering 32 airframes. But again, GE owns the F-15EX engine market right now, which on paper would make this a tough sell.

Goodman countered that, bureaucratically, Poland could make two separate aircraft and engine orders for the air dominance acquisition, as opposed to the F110 being tied into any future F-15 Foreign Military Sale (FMS).

As to why it would benefit Poland to make that switch, Goodman pointed out that Pratt and Whitney has a sizeable industrial footprint in Poland. The company’s F100 assembly facility in Rzeszów, south east Poland, produced “all” of the engines for the country’s F-16 aircraft and currently produces “static structures and critical rotating parts” for new powerplants and those in need of sustainment, said Goodman.

Polish industry is not currently “capable” of sustaining all parts of the F100, but Pratt would move to make that happen should the F-15EX order go ahead — a statement that dangles the potential for greater workshare in front of a Polish government always seeking new job opportunities. Performance based logistics type packages are also under consideration, noted Goodman, including “in-country stocking locations.”

He would not be drawn on a timeline for contract award, deferring to “decision makers,” on the matter.

“These things move around a little bit,” he said. “I mean [there’s the question of] affordability, and there’s a lot of things that [come into] play, from a capability perspective. Our intention is to put our best foot forward, so that when the decision makers sit around that table, they know exactly the benefits that we can bring to the F-15EX airframe.”