The rising costs have led to a row between Switzerland and the US, as Bern faces a $610 million increase for its order of 36 F-35As, a defense official told Breaking Defense.
“There was an impact, of course, with the four-week stoppage on our ability to ship all the GTFs and F135s that was in our plan,” RTX CEO Chris Calio told investors.
Modeling and simulation get an AI upgrade for more realistic training and improved autonomous platforms.
Pratt & Whitney said in a statement that it has “contingency plans in place to maintain operations and meet our customer commitments” and has no “immediate” plans to resume negotiations with the union.
The company is examining “all offers that’re out on the market today to make that decision, so it’s not going to be a quick choice,” Lockheed’s F-35 program manager Chauncey McIntosh told Breaking Defense.
The Engine Core Upgrade cleared a preliminary design review in July.
"Poland is the only country in the world that shares the common borders at the same time with Russia, with Ukraine and with Belarus. To keep the borders unchanged, we need the best equipment, the best capability and the best friends," said Deputy Minister of National Defence Cezary Tomczyk.
Explore how networked warfare, AI, and 3D-printed drones are reshaping US Indo-Pacific strategy.
The engine maker is also introducing additive manufacturing in other existing engine designs to reduce their cost and speed up their manufacturing, in a bid to make them more attractive for programs that seek to mass produce cheap drones.
After rancorous debate, a new engine for the stealth fighter was already in doubt, but legislation released by congressional appropriators today seemingly puts the issue to rest.
In a tour of Collins Aerospace's facilities, executives said their new thermal management solution for the F-35 achieved a key benchmark, though the Pentagon hasn't yet decided on a competition at all.
House appropriators do give money to the AETP program in their draft of fiscal 2024's defense appropriations bill, but another lawmaker says that it's just a "backup" and for research purposes.
As aircraft shrink, threats expand, and technology accelerates, aircraft engines must iterate along with the threats.
In a high-profile public spat with little precedence between the airframe and engine giants, Pratt & Whitney executives are formally accusing Lockheed Martin of prioritizing its own bottom line by seeking an adaptive engine solution for the Joint Strike Fighter.
“I’m going to advocate, and I do advocate, for [the Adaptive Engine Transition Program, or AETP],” said Lockheed Martin aeronautics chief Greg Ulmer, who labeled “some” current approaches to the fighter's engine modernization as “short-sighted.”
In an interview with Breaking Defense, chairman of the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee Rep. Rob Wittman explains the committee’s thinking behind keeping AETP going, as well as the reason for slashing funds from NGAD.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said that if the development cost was lower, the Air Force may have found the space in its budget to fund the engine for its jets alone, “but at the level of several billion dollars to do that [engineering and manufacturing development], we couldn't get there.”