Raytheon awarded $2 billion contract for F-35 engine parts

By Linda Hersey / June 7, 2023 at 2:54 PM

Raytheon Technologies has been awarded a $2 billion fixed-priced contract to buy engine parts for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike for the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, as well as foreign military service participants and other non-U.S. defense customers.

Pratt & Whitney Military Engines, a division of the aerospace company based in East Hartford, CT, is the contract recipient.

Announced June 5, the contract modifies a previous award to acquire materials, parts and components for Lot 17 of the F135 propulsion system. It also allows for the procurement of global spare parts, including engines, power modules and other hardware.

Work will be performed at more than a dozen facilities that include plants in East Hartford (at 17%), Indianapolis, IN (10%); Middletown, CT (8%); and Kent, WA (7%).

Naval Air Systems Command is managing the contract, with the work expected to be completed in December 2025. Funds for the acquisition were approved in fiscal years 2022-23 as follows:

  • Navy: $645.5 million in FY-23, and $1.4 million, FY-22;
  • Air Force: $527.6 million, FY-23, and $30.3 million, FY-22;
  • Non-U.S. defense customers: $417.5 million, obligated with the award;
  • Foreign military sales participants: $400.5 million, obligated with the award.

FMS participants include the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.

According to a May 31 Government Accountability Office report, program participants acquire spare parts from a global pool that DOD owns and the prime contractors manage. Spare parts are in more than 50 facilities in the U.S. and across the world.

The report cited the F-35 Joint Program Office for a lack of oversight that has resulted in lost and/or missing parts. The report stated that DOD “doesn’t account for or oversee the parts,” and that Defense officials “have not agreed on whether the spare parts should be “categorized” as government-furnished property.

DOD reviewed just 2% of 1 million missing parts identified since 2018, according to the report, which estimated the value of the lost parts at $85 million.

The report recommended that steps should be taken to categorize and track the global spare parts pool.

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