The Defense Department and engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Wednesday signed a $508 million contract modification for the sixth lot of F135 propulsion systems for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, according to a Pratt & Whitney statement.
This contract modification brings the total low-rate initial production (LRIP) 6 contract value to $1.1 billion.
 |
| Pratt & Whitney’s F135 engine. Photo: Pratt & Whitney. |
The LRIP contract covers 38 total engines, including program management, engineering support, production non-recurring effort, sustainment and spare parts. The 38 total engines include 36 install engines and two conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) spares. The Air Force will receive 18 CTOL engines, the Navy will receive seven carrier variant (CV) engines and the Marine Corps will receive six short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) engines. LRIP 6 also includes the first CTOL engines for Italy (three) and Australia (two).
The prices in the 32 common configuration engines, used to power both the CTOL and CV aircraft, were reduced in LRIP 6 by roughly 2.5 percent compared to the previous LRIP 5 contract for 35 engines. The unit prices for the six STOVL propulsion systems reduced in LRIP 6 by roughly 9.6 percent compared to the previous LRIP 5 contract for three STOVL engines.
The LRIP 6 contract maintains the same fixed price incentive terms Pratt & Whitney agreed to in LRIP 5 for propulsion systems, according to the statement. The company will continue to absorb 100 percent of all cost overruns. For LRIP 6, spare modules are now covered by these fixed price incentive terms. DoD and Pratt & Whitney will share returns on a 25/75 split derived from any underruns in target costs.
Pratt & Whitney is a division of United Technologies Corp. [UTX]