By Marina Malenic
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.–Engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney expects to ink an initial deal with Boeing [BA] for 358 of its PW4062 engines to be installed on the Air Force’s new aerial refueling tanker, an official at the engine company said last week.
“All the details have been agreed to; all that remains is the signing of the contract,” Warren Boley, the head of Pratt & Whitney’s military engine business, told Defense Daily. “It will happen within the next several weeks.”
Pratt & Whitney is a division of United Technologies [UTX].
The Pentagon in February awarded a long-awaited contract to replace the Air Force’s KC-135 aerial refueling tanker fleet to Boeing (Defense Daily, Feb. 25). The new aircraft, designated the KC-46A, is being developed and built under a firm fixed-price contract valued at over $3.5 billion for delivery of the first 18 aircraft by 2017. The overall program for 179 tankers is valued at upward of $30 billion.
Boley declined to comment on the cost of the contract with Boeing, but industry analysts say that it will likely be worth $5 billion to $6 billion, with another $7 billion to $9 billion in support contracts over a 30-year engine life.
By 2014, according to Boley, Pratt & Whitney will deliver eight flight-test engines to Boeing’s commercial aircraft facility in Seattle, where they will be integrated onto 767-based tanker aircraft. The planes will then be transferred to the aircraft manufacturer’s Wichita, Kan., military aircraft facility where tanker-unique features will be added. Boley said he expects his company to deliver 450 production engines between 2013 and 2014.
Pratt & Whitney plans to make incremental improvements to the PW4062. Under the pending contract, the company would be a subcontractor to Boeing on the KC-46A program. However, Pentagon officials could at any point in the program decide to contract directly with Pratt & Whitney for the engine.
“As of now, they have not decided to do that,” Boley said.