Pratt & Whitney No. 1 in Air Force Engine Orders

The Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies on Friday won the larger share of the Air Force’s 1988 jet engine business, reversing three years of setbacks at the hands of archrival General Electric.

The Air Force, in a brief contract announcement, said Pratt & Whitney will be asked to build 55% of the jet engines required for its fighters during fiscal 1988 while GE will produce the remaining 45%.

All together, the service said it plans to acquire 328 jet engines during the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Pratt & Whitney will build 181 and GE 147.

The Air Force declined to offer an estimate of the value of each deal, noting that the final contracts must still be negotiated. But it did estimate that the two companies will be splitting “approximately $1 billion” in fiscal 1988.

The Air Force launched what has been called the “great engine war” in 1983 when it decided to stage annual competitions for the right to supply engines for its two front-line fighters, the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Until that point, Pratt & Whitney had held a monopoly on providing the high-performance engines.

During the first round of the competition, GE shattered Pratt & Whitney’s monopoly by winning the right to produce 75% of the engines in fiscal 1985. Pratt & Whitney rebounded in fiscal 1986 by winning 46% of the total, but GE still won the majority of the business.

GE then managed to increase slightly its share of the Air Force’s business for the current year by winning 56% of the award to Pratt & Whitney’s 44%.

“General Electric won the first three rounds of the competition, but Pratt & Whitney was the clear winner of Round 4 and has been awarded 55% of the business,” Air Force Secretary Edward C. Aldridge said Friday.

“We’re extremely pleased,” said R.E. Ford, Pratt & Whitney’s vice president in charge of the engine program.

“In addition to our very competitive offer, I’m confident that today’s decision reflects the F-100 engine’s outstanding safety and performance record as well as its demonstrated reliability and durability.”

The Air Force said that both contractors had advanced “improved terms and conditions” in their bids for the fiscal 1988 work, including lower per-engine costs, better warranties and lower fees for support equipment.

Because of the continuing competition, the Air Force added, it expects to save “in excess of $4 billion over the life of the program.”

“This year’s close 55%-45% split once again reflects not only the intensity of the yearly competition, but also ensures that the fighter engine industrial base and head-to-head competition between the two companies will be maintained well into the future,” the military service said in a statement.

The Air Force has said it plans to acquire almost 1,800 engines for new F-15s and F-16s between fiscal 1985 and fiscal 1990 at an estimated cost of $7 billion.

With the fiscal 1988 split included, GE has now won contracts to produce 664 of its F-110 engines.