F135 STOVL Testing: The Heat Is On

The relentless march of the Pratt & Whitney F135 short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant towards government certification in the form of an Initial Service Release (ISR) edged even closer to reality this month with the successful completion of a grueling high temperature margin test.

At Tennessee’s Arnold Engine Development Center, the F135 was intentionally run to generate turbine temperatures in excess of design conditions, while simultaneously powering the turbo-machinery at or above 100 percent. This test, which went far beyond normal operational flight, not only demonstrated the durability of the F135, but also showed it could exceed the thrust specification by a remarkable 34 percent.

The same F135 STOVL engine, designated FX642 and still in excellent condition, will now complete STOVL performance qualification testing at P&W’s West Palm Beach facility, in preparation for ISR certification. Once this occurs later this year, the STOVL F135 will join its sibling, the Conventional Takeoff and Landing (CTOL) / Carrier Variant (CV) engine (which earned ISR in February 2010), as the only government-certified F-35 powerplants available now and for the foreseeable future, especially given current challenges facing the F136 extra engine team.

Congressional incumbents and would-be members alike should pause from their relentless last-minute campaigning to recognize that cancellation of F136 funding is the perfect way to demonstrate that fiscal prudence is more than a slogan. Saying no to GE’s latest “moving target” request for yet another billion dollars to waste on the trouble-prone F136 is the right thing to do, especially when the true figure is probably closer to three times that amount. Here are five reasons.

First, killing the F136 would show voters that it really is possible to slow deficit spending in the face of a potentially crippling national debt that certainly wouldn’t be helped by an extra wasted $2.9 billion.

Second, it would validate the Contractor Furnished Equipment competition that saw both Joint Strike Fighter finalists (Lockheed Martin and Boeing) choose the F135 over the F136 with government approval.

Third, it would reward the fifth generation F135 for nearly 20,000 test hours, thanks in part to the engine’s proven F119 heritage on the F-22.

Fourth, the F135 has already made a smooth transition from testing, bolstering future American and allied defense capability with production engines already being installed and powered up in production F-35 airframes. 

Last and certainly not least, eliminating the F136 in favor of the F135 will ensure thousands of vital aerospace jobs remain here in the United States, rather than being exported to the United Kingdom.

Bottom line: this month’s successful high temperature margin test and other milestones demonstrate that only one F-35 propulsion system – Pratt & Whitney’s F135 – can really take the heat.

– EagleBlogger

Single Source Engines: The Rule, Not the Exception

We at Pratt & Whitney would like to congratulate our colleagues at GE on their recent sole-source award of another 250+ engines to power an additional buy of F/A-18’s.  We’d also like to congratulate them on surpassing 15,000 sole source deliveries of T700 engines to power the Blackhawk and Apache helicopters.  Their sole source engine position on these platforms appears to work well for GE and their customers.

 The fact is, we all believe in competition when it makes sense for the customer and the taxpayer.  Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t.  But, GE’s success as a sole-source manufacturer of these engines is but one example that a “two of everything” competition through the life of a program isn’t always a good deal for taxpayers or in the best interest of our warfighters. The reason it’s rarely done quite simply is that it usually doesn’t make sense. 

 Take for example, the extra engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.  When you consider what portion of that program can actually be competed during the life of the program, it amounts to only $20 billion of the $100 billion program that also includes spares and lifecycle costs that aren’t competed.  Using the GAO’s very optimistic numbers, you may be able to save approximately 10-12 percent.  On $20 billion, that’s $2 - $2.4 billion.  Yet to get to competition will require a short term investment of $2.9 billion according to DoD.  Losing money to compete isn’t in anyone’s interest.  And, then there are the logistical complications and the doubling of risks that two engines present. 

 Using contemporary acquisition policies, there are a number of methods to hold contractors accountable and keep them performing effectively and efficiently.  Good examples of this include the highly successful F119 program for the F-22, the F117 for the C-17, or even the two previously cited GE examples.  You have to ask yourself if you already have a proven engine that by all measures is performing well and is years ahead of its potential competitor why you’d spend almost $3 billion for something that costs more than it saves, and the DoD says it doesn’t want or need, at a time when our nation is facing a fiscal crisis and has so many other pressing priorities for scarce budgetary dollars.

 Those in favor of the F136 extra engine argue that engine competition on the F-15 and F-16 programs have saved money and resulted in greater reliability. Yet the evidence for this rose-tinted analysis of the “Great Engine War” remains almost as dubious as revisiting a 1980s procurement model in the midst of a multi-war, economically challenged early 21^st century.

 For 60 years, the DoD has selected defense contractors to provide products and services to the government and competition has played a role. In October 2001, DoD selected the Pratt & Whitney powered Lockheed Martin F-35 concept demonstration aircraft as the winner of the advanced tactical fighter competition, and the JSF program entered the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase. Since then, the F135 has remained several years ahead of the F136 in development. The F135 has demonstrated excellent performance in flight testing and continues to support flawless vertical landing operations. In addition, as the F135 has evolved from the F119, it will have more than 22 years of experience to rely on. GE, on the other hand, is relying on the power of lobbying and earmarks from Congress to get funding when there is absolutely no advantage to the taxpayer or the U.S. military in having a duplicative engine.

During the last two decades, the DoD has seen Pratt & Whitney design, develop and produce the safest, most reliable fighter engine in the world -- the F119, which is the foundation for the F135. So why should the government continue to spend billions of dollars on an insurance policy for an extra engine? The premiums are far too high a price for the taxpayers and our military men and women to pay when the F135 engine is performing exceptionally well. In the view of Secretary Gates, President Obama and their predecessors, based on the reliable performance of both the F119 and the F135, an extra engine is nothing more than a waste of taxpayer dollars in the interest of corporate welfare.

 The F135 is reliably powering flight test and is in production today, while the F136 continues struggle achieving only a fraction of the hours planned.

 Remember: It’s not competition if the customer doesn’t want your product, the taxpayer can’t afford it, it isn’t as proven as the F135 (which already won the competition to power the JSF), and the basis of any potential cost savings is a mandated, split buy of future engines. 

 

            – EagleBlogger

England: Gates is right about Defense Efficiency

Former Bush Administration Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England weighs in on the extra engine debate in today's Hill newspaper.

England points out that:

• DoD studies concluded funding an extra engine will not actually save money, improve reliability or increase safety.

• Secretary Gates has stated forcefully and repeatedly that DoD does not want or need an extra engine and can’t afford it.

• $2.9 billion spent on the extra engine could be better spent on things that keep our troops and our nation safe, such as increasing procurement of F-35s to reduce the unit cost of the airplane itself. This would constitute real F-35 procurement savings.

• The extra engine is still in development with only 400 hours of testing compared to the 19,000 hours accumulated by the primary engine. Thus, there is still high development and financial risk with the second engine.

• Rolls Royce of the U.K. has significant work share content in the second engine.  Hence, funding the second engine will result in the exit of jobs from America.

The full column is here.

 

Good News from Washington, Even Better from Beyond

Despite recent developments from Capitol Hill that continuing resolutions will be needed before the end of Fiscal Year 2010 to fund the Pentagon and other government agencies in the short term, President Obama stated through the Office of Management and Budget on Tuesday, September 21 a call for the passage of S. 3454, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2011. The statement read in part, “The Administration appreciates that the [Senate Armed Services] Committee supports the President’s budget request, specifically by not authorizing funding…for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter extra engine…”

The unwavering support from President Obama and Defense Secretary Gates for Pratt & Whitney F135’s engine was reinforced this week by news it has surpassed 19,000 ground test hours and 560 flight test hours. Add those together and you’ll see the F135 is about to exceed 20,000 total test hours, an undeniably noteworthy milestone. Moreover, 394 flights as of September 20th, including a dozen flawless vertical landings, mean yet another landmark is about to be reached.

However, the real significance of all these numbers, though individually and collectively impressive, is they translate into tangible program advancements that benefit the warfighter and taxpayer alike. The short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) variant is in the final stages of testing prior to earning initial service release (ISR) certification from the U.S. government later this year. That milestone, combined with earlier ISR certification of the conventional take-off and landing/carrier variant (CTOL/CV) means that F135s powering all three versions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will have been fully tested and certified well before the F136 extra engine ever graduates from the test stand.

Yet for all the good news about F135 testing and certification, it’s worth remembering that this is now an engine well into the production phase. Nine production engines have been delivered and in recent days the first production F135 installed in a production F-35 was run to full power.

As the November congressional elections draw ever nearer, taxpayer calls for budgetary prudence and deficit reduction are increasing in intensity. Traditional budget hawk Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) stated earlier this year, “I don’t think any agency of the federal government should be exempt from rooting out wasteful spending or unnecessary spending. And I, frankly, I would agree with it at the Pentagon. There’s got to be wasteful spending there, unnecessary spending there. It all ought to be eliminated.” But his continuing parochial support for the needlessly duplicative F136 extra engine puts him at odds with his own political philosophy and a potential tidal wave of voter anger that might propel him to the speaker’s podium.

Following the fall elections, Congress will need to pick up where the continuing resolutions leave off. And whether the eventually solution for FY 2011 is settled via multiple bills in conference or through an omnibus package, lawmakers have the opportunity to serve the warfighters, heed the citizenry, and save money. Defunding the F136 would accomplish all three goals. Thanks to the continued support of F135 allies across the nation, the best news may still be to come.

– EagleBlogger

Sun, Surf and the Smell of Jet Fuel

While many Americans made the most of the warm late August weather by catching a few final rays of summer, Pratt & Whitney used the occasion to indelibly scorch the image and sound of the F135 engine at full throttle into the minds of a select few journalists invited to the company’s test facility in West Palm Beach. Rather than try to describe it myself, I’ll leave it to one of the professional scribes in attendance.

“Stand on the edge of the Everglades with the August sun beating down on your head, the summer humidity wrapping your skin and the thunderous beat of 43,000 pounds of power causing your chest and the very ground beneath you to thrum,” observed Colin Clark of DoD Buzz. “I wagged my jaw a couple of times so the seal on the hearing protection broke and my ears absorbed the awesome roar of the test engine firing about 100 feet away, hung high in the air. That’s what it’s like to experience testing of Pratt & Whitney’s F135 STOVL engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. It was my first military jet engine test and you can take it to the bank that I was impressed with the technology and with the brute power unleashed and then channeled.”

Government certification (known as initial service release) of the STOVL variant F135 engine is expected before the end of the year and will mark a final achievement in a development program that has already logged more than 19,000 hours and irrefutably proven the maturity of the F135 in the process. It will also serve as an emphatic milestone in a noteworthy year that has already included CTOL variant certification, delivery of the final test engines, 10 flawless vertical landings and counting, a smooth transition to production, supersonic flight of the STOVL variant F-35, affordability goals that are being met, and delivery of eight production engines with about a dozen more before the ball drops in Times Square to usher in 2011.

But the West Palm Beach event was more than just a celebration of what’s come before. As Guy Norris wrote in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, “Pratt & Whitney is upping the ante in the ongoing F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engine war by revealing the F135 has achieved combat-rated thrust 20% higher than the specification” – an accomplishment demonstrated on both test and production engines.
This level exceeds even the wildest claims from GE and Rolls-Royce, whose F136 engine has logged only about 400 test hours, despite a protracted gestation process that dates back to lost propulsion down-select competitions to the F135 for both the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed Martin X-35 JSF finalists.

Norris added, “Nevertheless, [Pratt & Whitney Military Engines President Warren] Boley says even though Pratt has demonstrated measured thrust with the conventional-takeoff-and-landing (CTOL) engine variant well in excess of the F135’s advertised 43,000-lb.-thrust capability, the focus remains on providing a systems-level solution to the F-35 thrust requirement.” In other words, a core that can generate more thrust than the lift fan or nozzle can accommodate will remain an untapped resource for which the customer has not expressed a need.

And because of the F-35’s stealthy characteristics, extra weapons and stores are unlikely to be carried externally and the platform itself will not be prone to the growth seen on fourth generation, non-stealthy F-15s and F-16s. Translation: “F-35 thrust requirements are set at the beginning of the program and are unlikely to change significantly.”
As the lazy, hazy days of summer yield to autumn and intense policy battles on Capitol Hill, images of the F135 exceeding specs and achieving major milestones are anything but a mirage.

– EagleBlogger