As part of the NGAP program, USAF has a new contract to both the General Electric Aerospace and Pratt & WHITNEY, increasing the funds for the development of advanced engines assigned to sixth generation fighters.
The U.S. Air Force has decided to accelerate the development of engines for the sixth generation fighter, and has awarded both the general electric aerospace and the RTX subsidiary Pratt & WHITNEY engine. Both engine makers have upgraded the previously issued prototype phase contracts from the original $ 9755 ceiling to a new limit of $ 3.5 billion for each company.
The original contract was issued in 2022 as part of the Next Generation Adaptation Promotion (NGAP) program. It also included an additional NGAP contract with Boeing, Lockhid Martin and North Rop Gramman. The upgraded contract between Ge Aerospace and Pratt & WHITNEY will be concluded in July 2032 and will be executed for many years.
NGAP engine
Both General Electric and Pratt & Whitney have previously designed engines for the Air Force’s Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) and are potentially replacing the engines of the F-35 fleet with improved fuel-efficient adaptive cycle engines. I investigated the options. The US Air Force has announced its decision to cancel the AETP in 2023 and upgrade the existing Pratt & Whitney F135 engines instead.
The General Electric XA100 and the AETP XA101 are the basis for improved NGAP programs and XA103 participants. Both XA102 and XA103 are adaptive cycle engines, making it possible to adjust during flight between various operating modes, providing more power when needed, or saving fuel and saving the range of aircraft. Works in a more fuel efficiency way to improve.
General Electric previously declared that the previous XA100 engines were about 25% more efficient than the existing F135 powerplant, and also offered 10-20% thrust. By improving thrust and fuel efficiency performance, adaptive engine technology developed under the AETP and NGAP programs could tell a “innovative leap” in the propulsion of planes, officials said.
Notification of NGAP contract corrections explains the increase as a reinforcement of the additional “technical maturity and risk reduction services”, which provides more funds by Ge Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney.
“Work includes design, analysis, rigtest, prototyped engine builds and tests, and weapon systems,” he said. “The contract (…) focuses on providing cutting-edge propulsion systems with flexible architectures that can be tailored to future fighter jets operating on a variety of mission threads. Digitally promoted industrial bases I will convert it.
Pratt & Whitney completed a key design review of its own XA103 engine in February 2024, and General Electric announced in May 2024 that the XA102 engine completed a major design review in December 2023.
The two companies are hoped that the two companies will immediately move to a full -fledged engine prototype before taking the test, but the current plan of NGAP will eventually eliminate one of the two suppliers in the program.
Even though the future of NGAD is still uncertain, the future of the US Navy F/A-XX, despite the Navy’s plans to develop planes independent of the Air Force’s NGAD Power can be supplied to the 6th generation career -friendly stealth fighter. Other platforms may fly using an NGAP engine. Alternatively, you can use a prototype power plant as a base for further development of future engines.
NGAD review
NGAP plans to produce engines for future next -generation air rule (NGAD) 6 -generation fighters. This program has received a wide range of reviews for 2024 for the purpose of re -evaluating the requirements of the sixth generation fighter and finds out whether the development strategy is in line with the evolving threats and the reality of the budget. I did it.
The results of the NGAD review may reconstruct the program and focus from manned sixth generation fighters to a more expensive technical system system.
The first focus was to create a high-end fighter with advanced and state-of-the-art functions, but now it takes into account the role of unmanned drones such as bombers such as CCAS, B-21, and distributed networks. The emphasis may be moved to the more integrated approach. Function.
The NGAD program is also struggling with increased costs as it is expected that the jet will have a price tag that is almost three times higher than the fifth-generation F-35 fighter jet. In fact, each NGAD aircraft costs between $250 million and $300 million, while the average unit price for the latest production lot, the F-35, is around $82.5 million.
Unmanned platforms such as joint fighters (CCAs) provide services with manned fighters, reducing the need for traditional and very expensive sixth generation crew. CCA prices are expected to be $ 20.6 million, less than $ 20.6 million, less than $ 32 million of the MQ-9 Reaper.
Therefore, the Air Force is pushing for a more lean, more efficient programme, seeking ways to split NGAD capabilities across multiple platforms to reduce overall costs. This could reduce the focus on a single, comprehensive platform in favour of networked approaches such as unmanned vehicles, bombers and cheap fighter jets.
