Latest news with #ImprovedTurbineEngineProgram
Axios
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Axios
Army weapons shake-up backed by Hegseth and other Trump picks
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the wider Trump White House are providing "air cover" for the U.S. Army's ongoing vehicle-and-weapons upheaval, the service's top civilian told Axios. Why it matters: System shocks are exactly that — a shock. Executing them requires support, especially at such a politically volatile moment. "Fundamentally, they just have a risk tolerance that doesn't match, I think, previous administrations," Secretary Dan Driscoll said at a live Axios event. "There are a lot of states and congressional districts and lobbyists; there are rational reasons why it exists the way it is today," he said. "Those reasons are just not in the best interest of soldiers." Friction point: On the materiel chopping block are longtime favorites (Humvee, Apache and the Improved Turbine Engine Program) as well as relative newcomers (M10 Booker). By the numbers: The Army is expected to save $48 billion over the next five years. Driscoll told Axios he and others consider comparisons between the Army Transformation Initiative (ATI) and Elon Musk's DOGE a compliment. "I think DOGE is loaded," he added. "You have a lot of people who have these feelings about it." The intrigue: Both Driscoll and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George have been working the media circuit since ATI was announced May 1.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New US Army helo engine lifts off, but may be headed for cancellation
NASHVILLE, Tenn. − For the first time, the Army's UH-60M Black Hawk utility helicopter lifted off the ground into a hover at a Sikorsky test facility, powered by the improved turbine engine that has been in development since the mid-2000s, according to the service's program executive officer for aviation. But as the Improved Turbine Engine Program leaps that hurdle toward the finish line, the effort is in jeopardy as the service looks to cut large programs to make way for the pursuit of what it sees as higher priorities amid the need to cut its budget by 8% as directed by the defense secretary. Army Vice Chief of Staff, Gen. James Mingus told reporters at the Army Aviation Association of America confab here that the service is waiting to see where it lands with the fiscal 2026 budget. Officials are trying to gauge how much flexibility the service has in the budget reconciliation process to fully understand if it can afford to pay for ITEP. 'The future of ITEP is largely going to depend on where all these things land inside the '26 budget,' Mingus said. Currently, there is no funding planned to move the program from development into production. Amid mixed messages on the engine's fate over the past several weeks, following the release of an Army directive outlining sweeping change to the service dubbed by the service secretary as the Army Transformation Initiative, Army aviation leaders are working on various potential paths for the engine. Options include outright cancellation, a continuation of the development program followed by its closeout, or a decision to proceed into production. 'We have two weeks, and now there are several programs named, you know, each of them come with a set of courses of action that we have been working on to make sure that we can meet Army senior leaders' intent,' Brig. Gen. David Phillips, the Army's program executive officer for aviation, told reporters May 15 at the Army Aviation Association of America. The ITEP program kicked off in a competition 15 years ago to replace the engines in both the UH-60 and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. But the engine effort has been plagued by various delays across its life as the service wrestled with funding, development strategies and a protest from the Advanced Turbine Engine Company – a Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney team, which competed against General Electric's aerospace division to build the engine for the Army. More recently, the engine was hit with more delays due to technical issues as well as the coronavirus pandemic, which caused supply chain problems. When GE won the contract, it touted a plan to move more quickly, but that window to accelerate closed and the Army subsequently predicted a two-year delay getting the T901 engine into the UH-60 Black Hawk, the first aircraft in the current fleet to receive the new tech. The Army was able to garner some important data when it chose to integrate the ITEP onto two competitive prototypes for the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. The companies in that competition – Bell and Sikorsky – had both received the engines and were installing them when the service decided to cancel the FARA program early last year. When the service canceled the FARA pursuit, it also delayed a production decision for the ITEP engine by three years. Sikorsky had taken advantage of fiscal 2024 FARA program funding before the Army officially closed the program at the end of the year to run tests of the ITEP in the prototype, ahead of integrating the engine into the UH-60, in order to drive down risk. The company received the first ITEP engines for the Black Hawk last fall and began ground runs earlier this year. 'We're currently still under contract to execute the program we were for ITEP,' Rich Benton, Sikorsky's head, told Defense News in an interview at the AAAA event. 'There's still budget in 2025 to continue that work. Will there be budget in the future years or not? You know, that's up to the Army and the [congressional] appropriators,' he said. 'The budget we have today, we'll get the Black Hawk in the air,' he said in a May 14 interview. 'How much flying and how much data we get from that will be up to the Army,' Benton said. 'We're looking at a path ahead in real time on the options and the options could be finish [integration], because there's not just the aircraft integration going on, but there's also the engine qualification testing that is going on in test stands,' Phillips said. 'We've had engines in test stands now for several years gathering low altitude, high altitude, low performance, high performance data. All of that data is very rich and informing the path ahead.' Additionally, the Army continues to have discussions with its joint partners regarding their interest in the engine and how they might integrate it onto their aircraft and a potential path forward there, according to Phillips. And foreign partners have also asked the same question about how they could potentially move forward with the ITEP engine as well. 'We're presenting all those, on how we could get Army senior leaders to meet their intent but get the most out of the dollars that we've invested in the program,' he said. Overall, the Army has spent over an estimated $1.5 billion over the past two decades on ITEP and its precursor development. The service had spent approximately $720 million on the program by 2016. The Army's contracts to competitors in 2016 totaled $256 million and the service awarded a $517 million contract for the engineering and manufacturing development phase to GE in 2019. What is under consideration for a different path to modernize the Black Hawk and Apache's engines, if the Army chooses to end the ITEP program prior to production, is unclear. 'If I had to decide today, hey, if that engine isn't going to be available in the future, what would I do differently? Integrate a different engine? I would quickly pivot to the engine the [Special Operations forces] flies. The SOF flies with a more powerful engine,' Benton said. 'Today it's been integrated in Black Hawk, it has been demonstrated. It is available today, so there would be commonality that would provide some more capability than I have today, [but] not as much as ITEP.' The Army is 'always looking at new ways to provide more performance to the aircraft, whether it's making components lighter, whether it's adding more power, whether it's adding additional fuel consumption capabilities,' Phillips said, 'We always look at that and I think we'll continue to look at that regardless of the outcome.'
Associated Press
29-01-2025
- Automotive
- Associated Press
GE Aerospace T901 Engine Powers Black Hawk for First Time in Successful Ground Runs
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., Jan. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- GE Aerospace (NYSE: GE) announced today the successful completion of initial ground runs for the T901 engine on a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter at Sikorsky's West Palm Beach facility. This milestone marks a significant step forward in the Improved Turbine Engine Program's Black Hawk testing. 'These tests mark a pivotal moment in history as the T901 engine powers the Black Hawk for the first time,' said Amy Gowder, president and CEO, Defense & Systems at GE Aerospace. 'This achievement paves the way for a more powerful and mission-ready Black Hawk, equipping the U.S. Army with the ability to meet the growing demands of future operations.' The ground runs validated the initial performance of all critical systems — including fuel, electrical, hydraulic, engine and flight control systems, and engine bay flow. Additionally, the tests acquired data from the comprehensive aircraft and engine instrumentation that will be used throughout the flight test program. Factory testing continues in parallel with this integration effort. The data gathered during these tests continues to validate that the T901 engine is on track to meet the U.S. Army's rigorous performance requirements. 'The successful ground runs of the T901 engine on the Black Hawk represent another critical milestone in our partnership with the U.S. Army,' said Tom Champion, GE Aerospace's T901 program director. 'This latest accomplishment not only validates the T901 engine's unmatched performance but also reflect the unwavering effort of our team and strength of our partnership with both the U.S. Army and Sikorsky.' The T901 engine builds on GE Aerospace's unparalleled legacy of powering Black Hawk and Apache helicopters with the combat-proven T700 engine, which has logged more than 100 million flight hours over the past four decades. Developed in response to the Army's call for increased power and reduced fuel consumption, the T901 delivers 50 percent more power, improved fuel efficiency, and reduced life cycle costs thanks to its simpler design and fewer parts. This efficiency translates to increased range, longer loiter time, and reduced maintenance and sustainment costs for the Army's enduring fleet. The T901 is a cornerstone of the Army's modernization efforts, and today's milestone underscores GE Aerospace's commitment to delivering cutting-edge propulsion technology to meet the challenges of tomorrow's missions. About GE Aerospace: GE Aerospace is a global aerospace propulsion, services, and systems leader with an installed base of approximately 45,000 commercial and 25,000 military aircraft engines. With a global team of approximately 53,000 employees building on more than a century of innovation and learning, GE Aerospace is committed to inventing the future of flight, lifting people up, and bringing them home safely. Learn more about how GE Aerospace and its partners are defining flight for today, tomorrow, and the future at
