The US Air Force’s B-52s have been powered by TF33 engines. (Photo: Boeing)
Pratt & Whitney will support US Air Force (USAF) TF33 engines to the end of the decade under a US$870 million deal which could be extended for further four years.
The TF33 engine has powered the some of the force’s largest aircraft including Boeing's B-52 Stratofortress and E-3 Sentry. The deal has marked a continuation of Pratt & Whitney’s arrangements with the Defense Logistics Agency's decades-long partnership with the 448th Supply Chain Management Wing, Tinker Air Force Base (AFB), Oklahoma.
Pratt & Whitney will provide engine sustainment services for a fleet of nearly 1,000 engines including maintenance, spare parts, programme management, field service, repairs and engineering support.
Sustainment work will run through April 2034 and also occur at Tinker AFB, as well as additional USAF locations and Pratt & Whitney's Southern Logistics Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
The aircraft engine manufacturer described the deal as a ‘first-of-its-kind approach will reduce obsolescence, supporting the USAF’s wartime readiness today and into the foreseeable future’.
‘The TF33 enterprise is maturing beyond the conventional approach to a more complete, advanced sustainment process that will maximize the TF33's support to many missions across the globe through 2050,’ the company noted.
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