Pratt & Whitney on Monday fired back at criticism from two
government watchdogs about its flagship military jet engine,
insisting reliability issues were under control.
The company's, a unit of United Technologies Corp., has endured
flak from the Pentagon over the cost and performance of the engine
used to power the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and a new report said
quality issues may arise and hit the performance and schedule of
the program.
Pratt won the engine deal after a hard-fought contest with
General Electric Co., and plans to build 50 F-135 engines for the
advanced fighter this year, with annual production rising above 200
by 2020 if Pentagon funding and international orders emerge.
Oversight of suppliers that provide 80% of the engine's parts is
being increased in an effort to boost reliability and quality
control, Bennett Croswell, president of Pratt & Whitney
Military Engines told reporters on an hour-long media call. An
internal Pentagon watchdog found multiple instances of problems
with Pratt's quality-control system, though not with the engines
themselves.
More serious were the issues raised by a recent Government
Accountability Office review that Mr. Croswell said caught the
company by surprise with its unusually stern language over poor
reliability.
"I don't think it gave a full picture," said Mr. Croswell. "The
engine is reliable."
Pratt is retrofitting engines on planes already in use with new
parts to improve reliability and fix problems identified when one
caught fire on take off last summer, grounding the F-35 fleet for
weeks and leading to flying restrictions, some of which remain in
place.
Though the fixes will take two years to roll out across the F-35
fleet, Mr. Croswell said Pratt's testing indicated the engines
would perform above expectations.
The company is producing the engines at facilities in
Middletown, Conn., and West Palm Beach, Fla., and has been pursuing
a "War on Costs" in the F-135 program that it said has cut expenses
by 55% since 2009.
The F-135 is the centerpiece of growth for Pratt's $3.5 billion
military jet engine as older models retire, and it is due to
negotiate the sale of two more batches with the Pentagon this
year.
Pentagon officials have over the past year been more critical of
Pratt's performance on the F-35 than of Lockheed Martin Corp.,
which is assembling the jet. Both companies have had payments
withheld by the Defense Department because of performance
shortfalls on the F-35, which is due to have limited battle
readiness with the U.S. Marine Corp. later this year.
The Pentagon has said it can bring only limited sanctions to
bear on Pratt, the sole supplier for the single-engine F-35. The
U.S. stopped funding a rival engine project led by GE in 2011.
Write to Doug Cameron at doug.cameron@wsj.com
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