January 25, 2024 | International, Land
May 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace
GE Aviation Awarded $707 Million for F110 engine production
Cincinnati, April 30, 2020 - GE Aviation's F110 engine continues to remain the engine of choice of advanced F-15 and F-16 aircraft around the world.
This month, the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) awarded GE Aviation four contract actions valued at around $707 million for F110-GE-129 engine production.
These contracts which fall under an existing indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, will provide F110 engines, installs, spares and modernized engine management system computers for Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70 aircraft, as well as the Boeing F-15QA Advanced Eagle. The contracts involve Foreign Military Sales to Bulgaria, Slovakia, Qatar and Taiwan.
“GE Aviation is honored to support the U.S. Air Force and foreign military sale customers,” said Shawn Warren, GE Aviation's vice president and general manager of large combat and mobility engines. “We say GE's F110 engine remains the engine of choice of modern F-15 and F-16 fleets around the world because we continue to support the F110 with a continuous infusion of new technology, including our Service Life Extension Program (SLEP).”
GE's F110 engine powers 86 percent of F-15s delivered globally over the last 15 years and 70 percent of today's most advanced USAF F-16C/D fleet. GE Aviation also powers two-thirds of U.S. military fighters and helicopters.
Over the last two months, GE Aviation has been awarded more than $1.2 billion in contracts to produce engines and hardware to support the U.S. military and international customers. Beyond the F110 deal, GE was awarded:
• A $62 million contract modification to manufacture T700 engines for 40 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters for the U.S. Army and international customers
• A $215 million contract modification to produce 48 F414 engines and modules
• A $138.2 million contract to provide TF34 engine supplies to the U.S. Air Force
• A $72.5 million modification contract with the Navy to procure 140 generator converter units, 140 wiring harnesses and other components in support of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and E/A-18G Growler aircraft electrical systems
• A $51.5 million contract modification for eight F414 spare engines, 11 afterburner modules and 12 low pressure turbine modules for the Navy F/A-18
• A $9.7 million contract modification to re-start T64 engine core production in support of the H-53E Engine Reliability Improvement Program for the Navy
The work involved in these contracts will be executed at GE Aviation's facilities which include Lynn, MA; Evendale, OH; Madisonville, KY; Rutland, VT; Hooksett, NH; Asheville, NC; Wilmington, NC; Muskegon, MI and other U.S. supply chain locations.
“These new contracts underscore the essential role we play as the leading provider of fighter and helicopter engines for our military customers,” said Al DiLibero, GE Aviation's vice president and general manager of medium combat & trainer engines. “We are honored by these opportunities, which will add to GE's current installed base of more than 27,000 military engines.”
While GE Aviation continues to produce engines and components, hundreds of military aircraft around the world are in the air daily to assist in critical areas needed to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. military alone is handling a variety of coronavirus responses, including building and converting facilities into temporary care centers, distributing food, providing security and transporting critical medical supplies. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, more than 28,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen in every state and territory have been activated to support COVID-19 response efforts. Hundreds of military aircraft are in the air daily to assist in these measures.
Each day, GE continues to see these aircraft performing a variety of missions—from GE T700-powered Black Hawk helicopters operating daily missions to deliver critical supplies to communities to CF6-powered C5M Super Galaxy's used to mobilize medical personnel.
“The efforts of our dedicated military servicemen, servicewomen, and civilians that are responding to the COVID-19 outbreak is heroic,” DiLibero said. “We are focused on doing our part to support the Warfighter.”
About GE Aviation
GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. For more information, visit us at www.ge.com/aviation
Follow GE Aviation on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GEAviation and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GEAviation .
View source version on GE Aviation: https://www.geaviation.com/press-release/military-engines/ge-aviation-awarded-707-million-f110-engine-production
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June 12, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Security, Other Defence
Air Force gets new stopgap system for GPS 3 satellites
By: Nathan Strout The U.S. Air Force's first next-generation GPS satellite launched in December and the second GPS III satellite is slated to liftoff in July. But there Air Force has a problem: The ground system currently in use isn't fully capable of controlling GPS III satellites. Worse, a new ground system that can, formally known as the next-generation operational control system (OCX), is five years behind schedule and won't be delivered until June 2021 at the earliest, according to the Government Accountability Office. Enter the GPS III Contingency Operations (COps) software—a critical stop gap measure that will update the current ground control system and allow it to access some of the more advanced features of the GPS III satellites until the next-generation operational control system is ready. On July 11, primary contractor Lockheed Martin announced that it had delivered the COps upgrade to the Air Force. “Positioning, navigation and timing is a critical mission for our nation and COps will allow the Air Force to gain early access to its new GPS III satellites,” said Johnathon Caldwell, Lockheed Martin's vice president for Navigation Systems. “We just finished final qualification testing and delivery on COps, and it will be integrated and installed on the [Architecture Evolution Plan Operational Control System] over the summer. We look forward to the Air Force ‘flying' a GPS constellation on the COps OCS which includes the new GPS III satellites, later this year.” The new GPS III satellites are built to be more robust and accurate than their predecessors and come with advanced features such as the ability to use M-Code, an encrypted GPS signal for use by the military. The COps upgrade will allow the current ground system to control the GPS III satellites as well as the legacy GPS satellites. It will also allow the current system to access M-code Early Use, an encrypted GPS signal with improved anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities, beginning in 2020. The Air Force contracted with Lockheed Martin to deliver the patch in 2016, the same year that the OCX program triggered a Nunn-McCurdy cost breach—a type of violation caused by significant cost growth that requires a program to be shut down unless the Department of Defense intervenes and approves a new cost estimate. The $6.2 billion OCX program is already five years behind schedule, and a May 21 Government Accountability Office report warned that the OCX program could be delayed even further. In addition, the Air Force has acknowledged that delays are possible during the seven-month testing period following delivery. Raytheon, the primary contractor behind OCX, rejected the GAO report, claiming that its findings were inaccurate. https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/c2-comms/2019/06/11/air-force-gets-new-stopgap-system-for-gps-3-satellites/
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August 28, 2019 | International, Aerospace
Astroscale US Targets DoD Sat Servicing Market
By THERESA HITCHENS WASHINGTON: Japanese start-up Astroscale thinks its space junk technology can be used by the Pentagon for on-orbit satellite servicing, to build a foundation for its ultimate goal of building a space debris removal business, says Ron Lopez, president and managing director of the company's new US unit. “Debris removal is the immediate focus for the company, but there is a lot of [technology] applicability to adjacent areas of the market that end up leading to capabilities that the military needs,” Lopez explained in an interview. “DoD is a customer like any other, with a future need for servicing its own satellites to extend mission life.” For example, Astroscale's sensor and guidance technology that allows it to precisely rendezvous with a piece of debris could also be used by the Air Force to do the same with an active satellite, he said, to inspect it or to make repairs. Likewise, the firm's docking technology is applicable to many types of servicing missions, such as re-fueling, that are of interest to DoD. Astroscale US thus is seeking American partners to help it break into the military space marketplace — starting small with component and tech demos. “We are still in early stage of discussions, and trying to understand what the requirements are,” Lopez said. “We've been busy building partnerships with a lot of small- and mid-sized companies,” he added, to bring together “a very innovative set of technologies and capabilities” that can bring “value-added to the commercial marketplace and DoD as well.” Astroscale launched its US subsidiary in April, opening an office near Denver and is slowly building a staff (currently number four full time employees.) The US subsidiary expands the company from the Japanese headquarters, and branches in Singapore and the United Kingdom. It recently garnered another $30 million to its Series D funding that brings the total amount of capital raised in the round to $132 million, according to the corporate website. The company, founded by Japanese tycoon Nobu Okada in 2013, is fully aware that it is cannot make a business case for orbital debris removal today. There simply isn't a country or a customer ready to pay to fully develop the technology required at the moment; nor is it clear that even if the technology is there customers would be incentivized to pay someone to take out their trash if there is no legal requirement to do so. Indeed, there may even be legal obstacles since the 1967 Outer Space Treaty deems debris the property of the launching state, meaning that a garbage collector would need permission of the owner to do so. Therefore, on-orbiting servicing is a nearer-term mission that will allow the company to continue to thrive and grow. “On-orbit servicing can enable space debris removal,” Lopez summed up. “We are working with customers who have an interest in adjacent missions; those interests help us develop our core techology.” The Air Force actively has been exploring on-orbit servicing technologies through a series of small business and tech demo projects. For example, in July, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) updated its request for information (RFI) designed to help the service get a grip on the available industrial base for autonomous Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) and “InspectorSat capabilities,” as well as the limits of current commercial technologies. Responses were due Aug. 9. Further, the space industry is lobbying hard for the Commerce Department to issue new US government rules to ease development of on-orbit servicing technologies and spur the market via more coherent licensing obligations. Licensing for satellites that can perform proximity operations — that is, can safely maneuver around another satellite or a piece of debris, dock with that object, and perform some function such as re-fueling — currently falls between agency cracks. Meanwhile, the CONFERS consortium, led by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is working to develop industry-created best practices for such tricky space operations. Despite the hurdles for a non-US company to get its subsidiary fully credentialed to compete for DoD contracts, Lopez says being a wholly-owned Japanese company is a help, not a hindrance, because of the high level placed on cooperation in space by Tokyo and Washington. While bilateral and multilateral collaboration is often equated with simply “trying to fulfill political objectives,” Lopez stressed that it also helps the countries involved to reduce schedule and cost risks. “When we have real and evolving threats, the need is urgent and we have an environment where our tax dollars are constrained,” he said, “what that translates into is that collaboration is a way to reduce risks.” https://breakingdefense.com/2019/08/astroscale-us-targets-dod-sat-servicing-market/