The Defense Department awarded Pratt & Whitney $508 million toward the F135 engine’s sixth lot of low-rate initial production. The F135 powers the F-35 strike fighter. This transaction, announced on Oct. 23, brings the total value of the LRIP 6 contract to $1.1 billion, according to the company’s release. P&W will build 38 F135s during LRIP 6: 18 for the Air Force; six for the Marine Corps; seven for the Navy; four for Italy; and three for Australia, states the Pentagon’s list of major contracts for Oct. 23. The LRIP 6 contract maintains the same terms that were part of LRIP 5: the company will absorb 100 percent of any cost overruns, and the Pentagon and company, by a 25/75 split, will share the returns derived from the company coming in under the target cost. LRIP 6 work is scheduled for completion in June 2016. P&W said it has delivered 115 F135 production engines thus far. (See also Agreement on F-35 Engine Contract.)
Unlike nearly every other innovative technology throughout history, Maj. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt believes the space enterprise emerged backward. “Every other domain started with an entrepreneur who built something,” Burt, the special assistant to the Chief of Space Operations, told an audience at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.