The War Zone (TWZ) website is reporting that the U.S. Air Force has “dramatically plussed-up” the budgets of contracts with engine manufacturers that are working on next-gen fighter engines. Both General Electric and Pratt & Whitney now have $3.5 billion budgets to work on their Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) programs. The information was released today as part of the Pentagon’s daily contracting notice, according to TWZ.
The NGAP program is focused on developing engines for a sixth-generation fighter, which is associated with the U.S. military’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) efforts. Though the future of the NGAD program remains uncertain, the new engine could also apply to other new aircraft programs.
The contracts with the two manufacturers originated in 2022 and had contract ceilings of just under $1 billion, as did contracts with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to work on developing the airframe. The GE engine is designated XA102 and the P&W engine, XA103. The GE program passed a major design review in 2023 while the P&W program achieved that milestone last year.
