Jet-engine maker Pratt and Whitney announced Monday that the U.S. Department of Defense had awarded the company a new contract worth up to $1.3 billion for additional fighter-jet engine improvements, an initiative that supports tens of thousands of jobs across the U.S.
The East Hartford-headquartered company’s continued work on the “F135 Engine Core Upgrade” aims to bolster the durability of F135 engines. The F135s power the three variants of the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft, which are made by another aerospace-and-defense giant, Lockheed Martin, whose other businesses include Stratford-based helicopter maker Sikorsky.
Pratt & Whitney’s new contract follows its announcement in July that it had completed the F135 ECU’s preliminary design review — a milestone that showed Pratt & Whitney and the Department of Defense’s F-35 Joint Program Office were aligned on the upgrade’s design, company officials said. Today, more than 700 engineers and program managers are working full-time on the program, Pratt & Whitney officials say.
“This contract is critical to continuing our positive forward momentum on this program,” Jill Albertelli, president of Pratt & Whitney’s Military Engines business said. “It allows us to continue work in the risk reduction phase with a fully staffed team focused on design maturation, aircraft integration, and mobilizing the supply base to prepare for production.”
To date, Pratt & Whitney has delivered more than 1,200 F135 production engines, with more than 900,000 engine flight hours recorded, according to company data. The F135 ECU will be incorporated into F-35s at the point of production or retrofitted at one of the F135 “depot sustainment facilities” around the world, and it will be available to all F-35 operators, company officials said.
An accident in December 2022 that involved an F-35B jet at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth in Texas led to a temporary suspension of F135 engine deliveries. A couple of months later, Pratt & Whitney officials announced that the company had found a solution for a vibration issue known as harmonic resonance, which they said had affected a small number of aircraft.
Around the time of the disclosure of the F135 fix, Pratt & Whitney officials announced that the company had been awarded a $5.2 billion contract for continued production of F135s.
In their announcement of the new contract, Pratt & Whitney officials also cited the economic impact of the F135 program in Connecticut; in Maine, where the company has a manufacturing facility; and other parts of the U.S. F135 work supports more than 57,000 jobs across 43 states, according to company data.
The jobs number might include suppliers to Pratt & Whitney, as the company has about 43,000 employees worldwide, according to its website. The company has 11,000 employees in Connecticut, the Connecticut Business & Industry Association reported in January.
“We are fortunate to have bipartisan and bicameral support from our congressional advocates, especially the Connecticut and Maine delegations led by senior appropriators” Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Connecticut’s state Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, said Jeff Shockey, senior vice president of global government relations for RTX, which is Pratt & Whitney’s parent company. “Their steadfast commitment to the F135 ensures it will deliver critical capabilities for decades to come.”
Among other initiatives, Pratt & Whitney has been pursuing expansion plans at its headquarters in East Hartford. In April, the company received approval from local officials to construct a five-story, 313,000-square-foot office building.
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