The US Army has selected GE Aviation’s T901-GE-900 engine for the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase of the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP) — set up to ‘re-engine’ its Boeing AH-64 Apache and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.

Tony Mathis, president and CEO of GE Aviation’s military business, said: “We are honoured to be chosen by the Army to continue powering their Black Hawks and Apaches for decades to come. We have invested in the resources and infrastructure to execute the project immediately, and our team is ready to get to work on delivering the improved capabilities of the T901.”

GE (www.geaviation.com) has powered Black Hawks and Apaches for the past four decades, with its T700 engine accumulating more than 100 million flight hours.

Through continuous upgrades and technology advances, GE has doubled the power of derivative engines in the T700 family over its lifetime and halved its cost to the government.

GE has carried over the benefits of the T700 engine’s single-spool core architecture, thereby ensuring that the T901 engine is ready to continue delivering combat-readiness over the next four decades.

Combat units can ‘swap out’ modular parts of the engine in the field and travel with fewer full-size spare engines, simplifying logistics and supply lines.