EVENDALE, Ohio - The United States Air Force (USAF) has awarded General Electric Company a $57 million contract to upgrade an initial 95 F110 fighter engines for F-16C/D aircraft as part of a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP).
Ultimately, the SLEP program is expected to cover approximately 800 F110 engines in the USAF fleet through 2012, at a potential value of more than $280 million to GE over the life of the program. The SLEP program will result in estimated savings of more than $1 billion in life cycle costs for the F110 engines powering the USAF F-16 fleet.
"We are pleased to receive this significant award," said Al DiLibero, general manager of the F110 engine program at GE. "The contract is the longest of its kind, and firmly underscores GE's commitment to extending the service life of today's military assets. It is also a classic case of incorporating technology from our commercial engines to upgrade military engines in a very cost-effective manner."
The SLEP program includes technology upgrades to the combustor, high pressure turbine, compressor and augmentor to reduce unscheduled removals by 50% and reduce the cost-per-flight-hour by 25%. Much of this hot-section hardware is derived from the highly-successful CFM56-7 engine*, which powers the Boeing 737 jetliner. SLEP programs are also being developed for both the F101 and F118 engines for the B-1, B-2 and U-2 aircraft.
F110 SLEP engines achieved a major milestone in February when they successfully concluded a 13-flight verification program designed to confirm earlier airstart and operability testing. In October 2004, SLEP engines completed Accelerated Mission Testing, which matches engine endurance against the most rigorous USAF flying profiles. Testing covered a total of 1,148 hours of running time and more than 1,300 simulated sorties, including 4,639 total accumulated cycles (TACs) and 8,253 afterburner light-offs.
For almost two decades, GE's F110 engine family has been the best-selling engine for single-engine F16C/Ds worldwide. More than 3,000 F110 engines have been ordered since the U.S. Air Force first selected the engine in 1984.
GE Transportation - Aircraft Engines, a part of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), is one of the world's leading manufacturers of jet engines for civil and military aircraft.
* The CFM56 engine is produced by CFM International, a 50/50 joint company of GE and Snecma Moteurs of France.