The U.S. Navy on Friday awarded Pratt & Whitney a contract modification worth up to nearly $2.9 billion to build more engines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Pratt & Whitney, which is a subsidiary of RTX, will produce and deliver 141 F135 engines to go into new F-35s for the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, as well as partner nations in the F-35 program and foreign military customers.
The Navy expects Pratt to finish these engines by February 2028. Work on the engines will be spread among multiple Pratt facilities in Connecticut, Indiana, Washington, Maine and other locations.
These engines will go into the 18th lot of F-35 fighters being built by Lockheed Martin, largely at its facility in Forth Worth, Texas. The Navy awarded Lockheed a contract in December 2024 worth up to $11.8 billion to produce and deliver 145 Lot 18 F-35s by the end of June 2027.
The Navy is providing nearly $656 million in 2024 and 2025 procurement funding to buy the engines, and the Air Force will contribute about $614.6 million. Foreign military customers will provide $513.7 million, and non-U.S. participants will provide $228.5 million.
Boeing is also receiving a sole-source Navy deal worth $315 million to repair landing gears for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter aircraft, which the company also makes. That work will be done in places such as St. Louis, Quebec, Canada, and Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and is expected to be complete by September 2029, the Navy said Friday.
And on Thursday, the Navy awarded Lockheed Martin a $27 million contract modification to buy special tooling and test equipment to support the Joint Strike Fighter.
Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting authority for the Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed deals. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support in Philadelphia is the contracting authority for the F/A-18 landing gear repair deal.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
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