Pratt Agrees To Fixed Prices For F-35 Engines

Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | 12/1/2010 | Graham Warwick

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Pratt & Whitney hopes to sign for a fourth batch of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter engines within weeks, having accepted a government request to negotiate a fixed-price incentive contract instead of the originally planned cost-plus deal.

F-35 prime Lockheed Martin signed a fixed-price incentive contract for the $3.9 billion low-rate initial production (LRIP) Lot 4 of the fighter on Nov. 19.

This covers 31 F-35s powered by Pratt F135 engines to be procured under a separate contract.

Pratt proposed LRIP 4 prices based on a cost-reduction plan targeted on getting the F135 down to the same cost as the F-22’s F119 engine by the 250th delivery, says Bennett Croswell, vice president of F135/F119 programs.

“We developed a ‘should-cost’ curve that was independently validated by the [Pentagon’s] Joint Assessment Team and [consulting firm] A.T. Kearney,” he says. “We are now talking to the JSF program office about our ability to go below the should-cost curve.”

LRIP 4 is the first batch to be priced based on the should-cost curve, but Croswell says the 20 flight-test and production F135s delivered so far have tracked the curve required to achieve the cost target by the 250th engine.

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Ping