On August 19, 2022, the US Air Force issued framework contracts worth $ 975 million each to five leading American aerospace companies for the development on a competitive basis of promising engines under the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program for the promising Next generation American fighter Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD). The contracts were awarded to General Electric, Pratt & Whitney (in partnership with Raytheon Technologies), Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The contracts include the development, construction and testing of prototype engines and are calculated until July 2032.
A frame from the presentation video of Northrop Grumman Corporation from November 2021 (c) Northrop Grumman It is characteristic that three of the five companies that have received contracts (Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman)
they are not engine-building, and, apparently, they will have to provide their own platform options for NGAP engines under the NGAD program. The development of engines for a new generation NGAD fighter by such a broad front is designed to support the competencies of the American military aircraft and engine industry, as well as possibly form new partnerships in this sector.
Recall that a little earlier it became known that the US Air Force is implementing a previously undisclosed Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program to create promising engines for its promising next generation fighter Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), and that thereby the US Air Force refused to use new experimental engines in the 20-ton thrust class on the NGAD fighter, created under the earlier Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) - General Electric HA100 and Pratt & Whitney HA101.
It is reported that the NGAP program has been in existence for several years, but its financing was not separated from the AETP program in budget documents until fiscal year 2021. Head of the Power Plant Management of the US Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (Air Force Life Cycle Management Center) John Sneden stated about NGAP that "this program uses technology that we used in AETP, but it's a completely new system that goes beyond what you see in AETP. Therefore, [it] differs in design." Preliminary engine designs under the NGAP program should be submitted by participating companies by the end of 2022.
In connection with the issuance of contracts for the development of new engines under the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program. The American web resource "Defense One" published a comment by Marcus Weisgerber "Multibillion Engine Deals Show Air Force Wants to Maintain Three Future Warplane Makers", which indicates that these contracts simultaneously raise questions about how far the program for creating a promising new generation American fighter Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) has actually progressed. previously advertised by officials as being at a very advanced stage.
The commentary says that the US Air Force plans to invest billions of dollars in the development of new combat fighters and engines for them over the next decade.
This plan shows the desire of the leadership of the US Air Force to retain three major aircraft manufacturers - Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman - as well as engine manufacturers General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, and thereby extend their capabilities for the production of combat aircraft for many years to come.
On August 19, five companies received identical contracts "for the development of technologies and risk reduction activities through design, analysis, bench testing, testing of prototype engines and integration of weapons systems." The contracts are part of the "implementation of the prototyping phase of the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion program and [are] aimed at providing opportunities to use these power plants for Next Generation Air Dominance platforms and for the digital transformation of the industrial engine base."
Efforts under the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion program are expected to create an engine for what the U.S. Air Force calls Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD): a new fighter jet that has been developed in secrecy, at least since the last administration of the Obama administration. In September 2020, the leadership of the US Air Force announced that the NGAD prototype was secretly built and tested.
Because this aircraft was designed using digital computer technology, "we achieved significant design maturity at an earlier stage than usual," said Andrew Hunter, head of the US Air Force procurement department during a June briefing.
But the contracts on August 19, under which each company can be paid up to $ 975 million in the period up to 2032, also raise questions about the maturity of the aircraft or aircraft [under the NGAD program] that have already flown.
The leaders of the US Air Force refused to name the company or companies that created the prototype, citing the secrecy of the program.
"Either they have already made a choice [of the developer's project], or it is not that advanced, or, incredibly, there are three players with an advanced degree of development," said Richard Abulafia, managing director of aerospace consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory. - "Two of these theses must be incorrect, and only one of them must be true."
In 1996, the Pentagon selected Lockheed Martin and Boeing to prototype what eventually became the F-35 fighter jet. In October 2001, the US Air Force signed a contract with Lockheed to create the F-35. The first F-35 flew only in 2006, and the first aircraft took part in combat operations only in 2018.
At the end of spring of this year, US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said that NGAD is at the stage of OCD [Epdine and Manufacturing Development - EMD], which, in Pentagon terminology, means that the aircraft is still being rolled out and is not ready for mass production.
In 2020, Will Roper, then head of the U.S. Air Force procurement Department, described the prototype [NGAD] as "a full-scale flight demonstrator [that] has already flown in the physical world." He said that this plane "broke a lot of records."
Currently, Lockheed Martin has the only operational production line for the production of low-profile fighters, and Northrop Grumman has the only production line for the production of low-profile bombers, which its CEO described as sixth-generation military aircraft. Boeing produces new variants of the [previous generation] F-15 and F/A-18 fighters, as well as a new T-7 combat training aircraft.
In 2019, a senior representative of the US Department of Defense said that the US Air Force would purchase new F-15 fighters partly for reasons of preserving two fighter manufacturers in the 2020s.
