Warfighters Need A New ‘Tested’ Helicopter Engine
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By Dan Gouré
May 08, 2019
Earlier this year, the Army declared General Electric (GE) the winner of the competition for the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), which will replace the existing power plants on Black Hawk and Apache helicopters and potentially power the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA). This will be a 50-to-75-year program. Yet, the award was based on a preliminary design review, essentially a paper description of the proposed engine. Limited testing of components was performed, but not of an entire working engine.
Because of budgetary constraints, the Army chose not to follow the common practice of funding for competing engine designs into Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD). The result is a greater risk to the warfighter. The Army would be wise to invest the relatively small amount of money required to take both that engine and the one proposed by its competitor, the Advanced Turbine Engine Company (ATEC), further into EMD, particularly to engine testing. Doing so would give the warfighters confidence that they were getting the best helicopter engine possible.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2019/05/08/warfighters_need_a_new_tested_helicopter_engine_114404.html
