P&W Military Engines follows up $2 billion F135 contract award with new initiatives

An F135 engine on one of Pratt & Whitney’s assembly lines.
Pratt & Whitney

Not content with winning a $2 billion award on May 31 to build 135 F135 engines for the Low Rate Initial Production Lot 11 (LRIP 11) of F-35 Lightning II fighters, Pratt & Whitney Military Engines announced a variety of significant new initiatives in June.

At Pratt & Whitney’s annual media event, held on June 12 at the offices of the company’s digital-initiative accelerator unit in Brooklyn, New York, Pratt & Whitney Military Engines head Matthew Bromberg described a series of new efforts launched by the company. These include the establishment of a $2 billion spares inventory for military customers and the creation of digital depot and fleet command initiatives to make the engine maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) process more efficient and reduce the time military engines require for work during scheduled and unscheduled MRO shop visits.

Also among the new initiatives revealed by Bromberg is the formation by Pratt & Whitney of a new, Skunk Works-like, Floridabased unit called GatorWorks, which will function outside the mainstream operations of Pratt & Whitney. GatorWorks will focus on developing new military-engine projects – particularly smaller engines and projects forming parts of larger potential engine development and production programmes – twice as fast as and for half the cost of traditional new-engine procurement cycles. Chris Kjelgaard