February 4, 2019 | International, Aerospace

General Electric wins $517 million contract to build engines for Army’s next generation helicopters

WASHINGTON — General Electric Aviation beat the Advanced Turbine Engine Company — a Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney team — to win the $517 million award for the engineering, manufacturing and development phase of the Improved Turbine Engine Program, or ITEP.

“We are honored to be chosen by the Army to continue powering their Black Hawks and Apaches for decades to come,” said Tony Mathis, president and CEO of GE Aviation's military business. “We've invested the resources and infrastructure to execute immediately, and our team is ready to get to work on delivering the improved capabilities of the T901 to the warfighter.”

The fierce competition started more than a decade ago, and its outcome will influence Army rotorcraft for decades to come. GE's T901 engine is now set to replace the T700 used by the Army's legacy utility and attack helicopters, but could also potentially outfit the Army's next generation reconnaissance helicopter in the Future Vertical Lift family of systems.

“The requirements documents for the [Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft] specifiesTHE ITEP engine. It has got the FVL stamp of approval,” Jim Thomson, Jr., acting deputy director for the Army's future vertical lift cross functional team, told Defense News in a recent interview.

ITEP answers a number of problems that emerged as the Army operated Apaches and Black Hawks during combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. The AH-64 and UH-60 became heavier as the service added armor and other upgrades during wartime, and they flew in hotter conditions and higher altitudes than would normally be optimal.

“The helicopters were originally designed to work at 4,000 feet on a 95-degree day, and they were flying them much higher than that,” Mike Sousa, GE's business development leader for advanced turboshaft engines, told Defense News in December 2018. “When you do that, you just don't have as much power from the engine.”

The Army's requirements for ITEP were clear throughout the process: Design a 3,000 shaft horsepower engine that reduces fuel consumption by 25 percent and increases its service life by 20 percent compared to the T700, a 2,000 shaft horsepower engine.

Both companies were awarded risk reduction contracts in August 2016, with ATEC getting $154 million and GE Aviation getting $102 million to further refine their designs. Both companies had already spent years conceptualizing new engines and developing novel tech.

GE, the incumbent manufacturer of the T700, offered a single spool engine. Sousa said that configuration would help the company meet weight requirements while removing cost and complexity from the design.

“Our fundamental approach there was how do we keep this engine as affordable as possible and as low weight as possible,” he told Defense News in 2018.

“Helicopters are unique in that they fly into very dirty environments, very austere environments, unprepared landing strips, unprepared surfaces,” added Ron Hutter, GE's executive director of the T901 program. “They generate a lot of dust. You really want to look at the simplicity of the architecture in terms of maintainability. That's another aspect that drove us to stick with the single-spool configuration.”

GE estimates that it's spent $9 billion in testing technologies relevant to the T901.

ATEC had proposed a double spool engine it dubbed the T900.

“We were disappointed to learn that the U.S. Army did not select our offering,” said Craig Madden, president of ATEC. “We believe that we offered the most advanced, capable and lowest risk engine for ITEP for the Army to improve the overall performance of its Apache and Black Hawk fleets.”

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2019/02/02/general-electric-wins-517-million-contract-to-build-engines-for-armys-next-generation-helicopters

On the same subject

October 4, 2019 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

Contract Awards by US Department of Defense - October 03, 2019
DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY CORRECTION: Shoreland Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract with a maximum value of $21,650,000. HT0038-19-C-0002 provides for the renewal of the commercial-off-the shelf enterprise publications licenses in support of the Military Health System. Licenses allow continuing access to a multinational collaborative database that provides up-to-date international unclassified medical intelligence data supporting patient movement, preventative medicine, and clinical contingencies planning for military medical and deployment planners and providers. This effort has a one-year base period of performance, and three one-year option periods. The estimated completion date is Sept. 30, 2023. Work will occur in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The base task order will be funded by fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance funds. The award is the result of a non-competitive solicitation in accordance with FAR 6.302-1. The contracting activity is the Defense Health Agency. NAVY BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services, Rockville, Maryland, is awarded an $18,351,068 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide engineering and technical services for integrated communications and information systems radio communications on various Navy ships in support of the Ship and Air Integration Warfare Division, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Webster Outlying Field. Work will be performed in St. Inigoes, Maryland (60%); California, Maryland (30%); Bath, Maine (5%) and Pascagoula, Mississippi (5%), and is expected to be completed in June 2029. Fiscal 2020 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $18,351,068 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposal; one offer was received. The Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-20-C-0003). General Atomics, San Diego, California, is awarded a $12,255,842 modification (P00019) to a cost-plus-fixed-fee delivery order (0001) against a previously issued basic ordering agreement (N00019-16-G-0006). This modification increases the level of effort for repair of repairables (ROR) and technical assistance. ROR includes efforts and materials required to inspect and repair or remanufacture unserviceable repairable components that are provided to the contractor as government furnished property and return the electromagnetic aircraft launch systems (EMALS) and advanced arresting gear (AAG) repairable items to a fully operational status. Technical assistance includes the necessary services to provide "on-call/on-site" emergency repairs. Repair services and technical assistance will also be provided for EMALS and AAG shipboard systems. Work will be performed in Tupelo, Mississippi (55%); San Diego, California (35%); Norfolk, Virginia (6%); Waltham, Massachusetts (2%); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1%); and San Leandro, California (1%), and is expected to be completed in September 2020. Fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds in the amount of $12,255,842 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity. AIR FORCE Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services, Madison, Mississippi, has been awarded a $7,706,151 modification (P00012) to exercise an option on previously awarded contract FA3010-18-C-0007 for full food services. The location of performance is Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, and the work is expected to be complete by Sept. 30, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $7,706,151 will be obligated when they become available. The 81st Contracting Squadron, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, is the contracting activity. ARMY KBRwyle Technology Solutions LLC, Columbia, Maryland, was awarded a $7,142,371 modification (0001 49) to contract W52P1J-12-G-0061 for logistics support services, maintenance, supply and care of supplies in storage. Work will be performed in Waegwan, South Korea, with an estimated completion date of May 28, 2020. Fiscal 2020 operation and maintenance funds in the amount of $600,000 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity. https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Contracts/Contract/Article/1979758/source/GovDelivery/
May 6, 2020 | International, Aerospace

Le GIFAS plaide pour un plan de relance européen pour soutenir la filière aéronautique
Eric Trappier, président du GIFAS et PDG de Dassault Aviation, a lancé mardi 5 mai, lors d'une visioconférence, un appel à mettre en place un soutien dédié à la filière aéronautique. L'aéronautique française, après avoir marqué un léger temps d'arrêt pour organiser les mesures sanitaires, entre désormais dans une phase de remontée en puissance, a indiqué M. Trappier : «A ce jour, 30% des effectifs sont sur site, 25 à 30% des salariés sont en télétravail, 30 à 35% au chômage partiel. Les salariés reviennent petit à petit sur les sites de production». Le GIFAS a créé une task-force associant grands donneurs d'ordre, PME et équipementiers afin d'identifier les acteurs menacés et de mettre en œuvre des solutions de sauvetage, en liaison avec le ministère de l'Economie et des Finances et Bpifrance, qui «aura un rôle à jouer pour recapitaliser les entreprises en difficultés», souligne Eric Trappier. Le GIFAS, qui regroupe 400 acteurs et leurs 200 000 salariés, soutient l'idée évoquée par Bruno Le Maire de dédier «un ou plusieurs fonds à l'aéronautique» dans le cadre des plans de relance discutés en France et au niveau européen afin de «tenir et passer le cap». «Ces fonds doivent être suffisamment dimensionnés pour répondre aux besoins. L'unité de mesure, c'est le milliard», a insisté Éric Trappier. «Nous demandons à l'État de nous accompagner dans cette passe difficile, en particulier les plus faibles d'entre nous», a-t-il déclaré. M. Trappier plaide pour un plan de relance européen, notamment pour maintenir les efforts de recherche pour l'aviation «verte» de demain.
September 15, 2020 | International, Aerospace

Full COVID-19 Recovery For F-35 Deliveries Pushed To 2022
Steve Trimble Lockheed Martin F-35 deliveries postponed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chain will not fully recover by the end of 2021, a company executive told Aerospace DAILY. In June, Lockheed announced that 18-24 F-35s in production Lot 12, which are scheduled for delivery in 2020, will be delayed, reducing the overall delivery target to 117 to 123 jets this year. Although Lockheed's final assembly plant in Fort Worth is now at full operations, the impact on the supply chain will drag out the recovery for another year, said Michelle Evans, executive vice president of Lockheed's Aeronautics business. “We're still looking somewhere between 15-20 aircraft that we will be behind by the end of the year,” Evans said in an interview. “It is going to take a while for the supply chain and, thus, Lockheed Martin to recover. So it will take us longer than next year. We'll probably be staring at two years to recover those jets.” Lockheed's supply chain is in recovery while the company continues negotiating separate deals with the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) for the next three years of airframe production and converting the annual sustainment contracts into a multiyear performance-based logistics (PBL) agreement. In October 2019, the JPO and Lockheed agree to an economic order quantity of 478 aircraft for lots 12-14, which are delivered from 2020 to 2022. The agreement includes a firm order from the U.S. government for Lot 12 aircraft, with priced options for Lots 13 and 14 resulting in an overall total of 291 F-35s. The international customers added orders for 187 aircraft under a related, three-year production order. A similar approach will be followed for the U.S. and international orders in Lots 15-17, which will include the first jets to receive upgraded Technical Refresh-3 hardware, Evans said. Separately, the JPO and Lockheed are continuing to negotiate a long-term PBL to sustain the F-35s, with an overall goal to reduce the cost per flight hour of the F-35A to $25,000 by 2025. Lockheed sees an opportunity to reduce sustainment costs by $18 billion or more over the term of the PBL, Evans said. Lockheed expects to make an initial investment of $1.5 billion in cost-saving projects once the deal is signed. https://aviationweek.com/shows-events/afa-air-space-cyber-conference/full-covid-19-recovery-f-35-deliveries-pushed-2022

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