Pratt & Whitney opens new US military engines facility

Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business, has opened a new 845,000ft² facility in Oklahoma, solidifying its position as the business’s largest military engines field location. The result of a $255 million investment, the new facility will enable Pratt & Whitney to meet the growing demands of both US and global defence customers for the F135, F117, TF33, F100 and F119 engines.

Jill Albertelli, Pratt & Whitney’s president of military engines, said: “Oklahoma City is the heart of our global sustainment network for Pratt & Whitney’s military engines business and plays a critical role on every single one of our programmes. This new facility will serve as a hub for all our military engine programmes and allow us to better support our customers and their missions.”

Pratt & Whitney's Oklahoma City site is home to over 500 full-time employees, with an additional 500 ‘contract and partner employees’. This investment will create an additional 100 full-time jobs over the next five years.

Sustainment needs
Greg Treacy, vice president of Pratt & Whitney in Oklahoma City, added: “Our investment in this facility underscores our commitment to meeting both today’s sustainment needs and preparing for the future. This expansion more than doubles our footprint in Oklahoma City, ensuring we have the capacity and agility to support increased workloads as military programmes ramp up and new ones come online.”

Meanwhile, Pratt & Whitney has been awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion to continue work on the F135 engine core upgrade (ECU). Jill Albertelli said: “This contract is critical to continuing our positive forward momentum on this programme, allowing us to continue work in the risk reduction phase with a fully staffed team focused on design maturation, aircraft integration, and mobilising the supply base to prepare for production.”

To date, Pratt & Whitney has delivered more than 1,200 F135 production engines, with more than 900,000 engine flight hours recorded. The F135 ECU will be incorporated into F-35s at the point of production or retrofitted at one of the multiple F135 depot sustainment facilities around the world and will be available to all F-35 operators.