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Pratt's Military Campaign
Long-term support contracts have become crucial in winning military engine competitions following four highly visible programs at Pratt & Whitney, according to executives there.
“When I go to war I want to launch at will. I’m going to be trusting someone else — can that really work? We’ve proven that indeed it can,” says Gen. (Ret) Lloyd ‘Fig’ Newton, evp for military engines at Pratt.
Air forces around the world have noted the success of the Boeing and Pratt & Whitney (with partner United Airlines) in supporting the readiness of the C-17 Globemaster III both in peace and in war. They have watched as the USAF made Pratt the depot for the F100-PW-229 that powers the F-16C/D and F-15E fighters, and as Pratt and the USAF won the prestigious Aviation Week Ryan Award for their innovative public-private partnership on F100 and F119 engines at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base.
Then Pratt showed fleet management could work with a foreign customer when the Italian Air Force signed a $45 million thrust-by-the-hour support deal for the fleet of F-16s it is leasing from the U.S. P&W provides complete support of the engines on the flightline, the intermediate engine shop, and depot level maintenance. Material, technical support, repair and program management are all handled by the company.
Newton hails the win as a strategic milestone for Pratt as a fleet management provider for military aircraft.
“We expect the contract with Italy will be followed in several campaigns in the international arena,” says Kevin Trammel, Pratt’s director of business development for military engines.
“We’ve got one campaign going on right now where they have asked for a support package under 36 different scenarios,” he notes. These range from traditional parts supply to complete fleet management, with different prices for 85% or 95% readiness. “This shows the customer is very aware of what he is buying,” he adds.
Says Newton “We’re beginning to see an incredibly powerful alignment of forces. They want engines to stay on that aircraft and be ready when they walk out to it, and that’s exactly what we want. That changes the paradigm: you start buying performance, not parts and maintenance.”
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