After the May requests, contracts are expected to be awarded to the two competitors in March 2016, a request for proposals issued for the engineering and manufacturing design phase in early 2017, and a downselect to one of two competitors in 2018 before beginning low-rate production.
Advanced Turbine Engine Co. (ATEC), a 50-50 joint venture of Pratt & Whitney and Honeywell, is competing with GE Aviation to develop a drop-in replacement for the legacy GE T700 engines that power the Boeing AH-64 Apache and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk fleets. The engine is also expected to power light rotary-winged aircraft expected to emerge from the service's nascent Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program, according to Jerry Wheeler, vice president of programs at ATEC.
The president's 2016 budget request would fund ITEP at $51 million and anticipates a total development cost of $720 million. The budget anticipates the first engine test and the start of physical airframe integration in fiscal 2021.
Aviation and Missile Command's chief, Maj. Gen. Jim Richardson, recently highlighted the engine's potential to allow the Apache and Black Hawk to, "carry more armament and more troops further and more efficiently.
"The ITEP will allow our future aircraft to operate with more flexibility while increasing effectiveness on the battlefield. ITEP, when paired with FVL aircraft, provide us the opportunity to see the future of Army aviation," Richardson told Army Technology magazine.
Maj. Gen. Michael Lundy, commander of the Army's Aviation Center of Excellence, said ITEP was among Army Aviation's modernization priorities.
"We certainly need to continue to have advanced engines that save us fuel and increase our efficiency, and ITEP is going to do that," he told a defense industry audience at a January conference here.
The Army must still conduct an analysis of alternatives and seek approval from the Joint Requirements Oversight Council.
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