U.S. Army Selected GE Engine For Next Generation Apache And Black Hawk Helicopters

The Advanced Turbine Engine Company (ATEC) has protested the U.S. Army's decision to award General Electric an Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract for its next generation of Black Hawk and Apache helicopter engines. ATEC is a joint venture of Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney.

The protest was filed last Tuesday with the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The Army is seeking to re-engine its fleet of Black Hawk and Apache helicopters through the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP). The engine that is ultimately selected will also power certain variants of the Army's Future Vertical Lift family of advanced rotorcraft. ITEP is intended to revolutionize Army aviation to meet the demanding requirements of the coming decades.

"In our review of the evaluation, we clearly offered the best value through a combination of a highly rated and technically superior engine that was judged to be much lower risk, and believe we did so significantly under the government's budget," said ATEC president Craig Madden. "We are requesting that the government review these facts and award the ITEP contract to ATEC, the best engine and the one that our warfighters and taxpayers deserve."

(Source: ATEC news release. Image from file)

FMI: www.atecadvantage.com