Pratt & Whitney awarded $54M U.S. Navy contract to fix F135 engine issues

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Pratt & Whitney Secures $54M Navy Order for F135 Engine Engineering

Key Points

• RTX's Pratt & Whitney received a $53,755,700 Navy order for F135 engine engineering work.
• The contract is funded partly by the U.S. and partly by allied partner contributions.
• Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at Patuxent River, Maryland, is managing the uncompeted contract.
• Work is expected to be completed by December 2028.

Contract Details

RTX Corp.’s Pratt & Whitney Military Engines division in East Hartford, Connecticut, has been awarded a $54 million order to perform engineering work on the F135 engine, which powers every variant of the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter.

The order is issued under a fixed-price incentive structure, which rewards the contractor for meeting cost and schedule targets while also covering additional costs on a fee basis. It falls under a broader agreement the U.S. Navy previously established with Pratt & Whitney to manage engineering work as problems arise.

Rather than funding new engine production, the money pays for what the Navy calls "non-recurring engineering." This refers to specialized design and testing work performed once to solve a specific technical problem, as opposed to the repeatable manufacturing labor used on an assembly line.

Background on the F135 Engine

The F135 generates more than 40,000 pounds (18,144 kg) of thrust and is the most powerful fighter engine ever put into production, according to Pratt & Whitney. However, its operational history has been more challenging than the Pentagon originally planned.

• A 2023 audit by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that F135 sustainment problems would add roughly $38 billion in unplanned maintenance costs over the fleet’s lifetime.
• This is largely driven by a cooling system that engineers now acknowledge was undersized for the sensors and electronics the F-35 eventually carried.
• Pratt & Whitney has also spent recent years developing field fixes for issues including premature wear on protective coatings inside the engine’s turbine blades and a vibration problem known as harmonic resonance that affected a small number of engines.

Scope of the New Order

This new order continues the pattern of addressing problems as they surface rather than waiting for a full redesign. The contract funds work described as the early identification, development, and qualification of corrections for both potential and actual operational issues.

Engineers are tasked with catching emerging problems before they ground aircraft and building tested solutions once they do. The order also pays for evaluating how long individual engine components can safely remain in service based on real-world flight data. The Navy says this process will:

• Extend engine life
• Sharpen operational readiness rates
• Reduce maintenance and life cycle costs

Supported Services and Partners

The order explicitly supports the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy, which fly the F-35 in its A, B, and C model variants, respectively. It also supports:

• The F-35 Cooperative Program Partners (allied nations that helped fund the fighter’s original development)
• Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers (countries that purchased F-35s through government-to-government sales)

More than 1,300 F135 engines now power aircraft across roughly 20 allied nations. An engineering fix developed under this contract could eventually reach squadrons from Europe to the Pacific.

Work Distribution

Work under the order will be spread across seven locations:

| Location | Percentage of Work | | :--- | :--- | | East Hartford, Connecticut (HQ) | 74% | | Middletown, Connecticut | 7% | | West Palm Beach, Florida | 7% | | Indianapolis, Indiana | 6% | | Windsor Locks, Connecticut | 3% | | Aguadilla, Puerto Rico | 2% | | North Berwick, Maine | 1% |

Connecticut alone hosts 84% of the engineering effort funded by this single order, reflecting how deeply embedded the F135 supply chain has become in the Northeast.

Funding Breakdown

The Navy is contributing $14,000,000 in Fiscal Year 2026 research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) funds. The F-35 Cooperative Program Partners are contributing $22,274,290 of their own.

This funding split underscores how allied nations now directly bankroll a meaningful share of the fighter’s ongoing engineering support, rather than relying solely on American defense spending. The Pentagon did not put this contract out for competitive bidding.