Pratt & Whitney, an RTX (NYSE: RTX) business, has completed a critical assessment of its Next-Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) offering with the U.S. Air Force, moving the program closer to completing its detailed design review. The team is now working towards ground testing of its NGAP prototype, referred to as XA103, which is expected to occur in the late 2020s.
The Air Force plans to select a design for its Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) aircraft by the end of 2024. The Air Force plans to choose a supplier for the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) engine in 2024. Ground testing is expected to occur later in the decade, and weapon system integration is planned for 2032.
The engines for the hyper-secret Next Generation Air Dominance fighter will be a different size than the adaptive engines (AETP) developed for an F-35 upgrade, but many of the technologies will port over to the new powerplant. The NGAD engines will almost certainly be bigger than the F35 engine. This will make it easier to use the many years of AETP engine work in the new fighter. Pratt & Whitney are in the prototyping phase for the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) engine which will power the next generation air domination fighter (NGAD 6th generation fighter). They and GE were part of the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) meant for the F-35 and are instead bringing that engine technology over to the new project. The advanced engine should allow for 20% more speed and 30% more range.
Five companies, including Boeing, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Pratt & Whitney were each awarded a ten-year, $975m contract for their respective NGAP designs in August 2022.
In April 2022, Secretary Kendall testified that the AETP engine would cost $6 billion to get into production. The Air Force estimates that the upfront development costs will be nearly $6.7 billion, which is 279 percent more than the $2.4 billion development cost for the ECU projected by Pratt & Whitney. It has been estimated that $19 billion is budgeted for NGAD R&D from 2022-2028 fiscal year.
The US military chose the F135 Engine Core Upgrade offered by Pratt & Whitney instead of the AETP. Pratt & Whitney has made all of the engines for over 1000 F-35 stealth fighters.
The ECU is a limited scope upgrade. It looks very similar to the existing motor in the F-35 but adds the latest design tools into the same supply base. The upgrade wouldn’t require any of the F-35’s interfaces to change and is limited to just the core of the engine. An upgraded F135 would be production cost neutral, despite having a budget of $200-250 million a year for the next several years. The initial cost of a brand-new adaptive engine would be about two and half times that of current the F135 and would add about $4 billion in production costs across the life of the program. Other estimates were the adaptive engine could cost more than $6 billion and force the military to buy roughly 70 fewer F35 fighters. The ECU upgrades will start to be added to operational jets sometime between 2030 and 2032 (if current timelines are met).
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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