Sep. 18—Jet-engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney has been awarded an approximately $670 million contract modification from the U.S. Department of War for additional production of F135 engines for F-35 fighter jets.
The contract modification was disclosed this week on the website of the Department of War, which was previously called the Department of Defense. Pratt's facility in East Hartford will handle 97% of the work, with the project expected to be completed in December 2028, according to the department.
"This modification adds scope to procure initial spares for the production and delivery of the F135 propulsion system including pares depot and common for the F-36 global spares pool, and country unique spares in support of the Joint Strike Fighter program for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy non- Department of War participants, F-35 cooperative program partners and foreign military sales customers," says an excerpt of the announcement.
A message left for the Department of War inquiring whether "F-36" was actually intended to be "F-35," given that F135 engines power all the variants of the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft, was not immediately returned.
The new announcement follows a number of other recent contract modifications for Pratt, including one announced last month for F135 production that is worth about $2.9 billion.
Pratt & Whitney's deliveries of F135 engines, as well as GTF models for commercial aircraft, were affected by the three-week strike in May of the company's approximately 3,000 Connecticut-based machinists. The work stoppage was resolved when the machinists approved a new four-year contract on May 27.
"That's something we're going to have to recover throughout the balance of the year," Christopher Calio, CEO and chairman of RTX, Pratt & Whitney's parent company, said on May 28 at the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference. "There will be a cash impact here in the second quarter as a result. I think break-even to negative cash flow in the quarter, but again, recoverable in the year. We're going to continue to get our people back, ramped up, get our engines back out the door."
Pratt & Whitney is one of the largest employers in Connecticut, with approximately 10,800 people based across its plants in East Hartford and Middletown, which comprise its two manufacturing facilities in Connecticut.
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