Sikorsky has received the first two GE Aerospace T901 new Army helicopter engines that will be integrated onto the UH-60M Black Hawk to support modernization efforts, the companies said on Thursday.
The delivery milestone for the T901, developed under the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP), arrives as the Army is targeting early 2025 for the first flight of the Black Hawk with the new engine.
“This delivery represents the beginning of a new era and a pivotal moment in our ongoing work with the U.S. Army,” Amy Gowder, GE Aerospace’s president and CEO of defense and systems, said in a statement. “The T901 engine will ensure warfighters will have the performance, power, and reliability necessary to maintain a significant advantage on the battlefield.”
GE Aerospace was awarded a $517 million contract in February 2019 to develop its T901 engine for ITEP, which will eventually power the Army’s AH-64 Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
The T901 was also intended to power the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft platform before the Army announced in February its plan to cancel development of the program, which had been in a competitive prototype phase with Sikorsky and Bell.
Along with canceling FARA, the Army noted at the time it would also delay moving into production of the T901 engine and invest in further research and development efforts.
In late April, the Army confirmed it had recently conducted a “light off” of the T901 engine on Sikorsky’s Raider X prototype for FARA to reduce risk heading into Black Hawk integration efforts.
“With that effort [on the FARA prototype], we gained a lot of data that will transition into the ITEP program. First into the Black Hawk program and then into the Apache,” Brig. Gen. David Phillips, the Army’s program executive officer for aviation, told reporters at the time. “[This summer,] we’ll get those engines integrated into the [Black Hawk] aircraft. We’ll do some power on checks later this year. Throughout the rest of this year, there will be planning in parallel. After we finish the preliminary flight rating testing on the test stands of the other engines that would feed right into the air worthiness release to do the first test flights and ground runs. Those will probably occur next year based on the schedule where we’re at today.”
Sikorsky said in April it had received authorization from the Army to now run the T901 engine up to full speed on the ground, while confirming there were no plans to actually fly the company’s Raider X prototype with the new engine.
“We view this [Black Hawk effort] as an extension of the work we’ve completed on ITE[P] with our Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft prototype and are even better positioned for a timely and simplified integration of the engine into the H-60M, due to data and insights we’ve retrieved from successful ITE[P] tests completed to date,” Hamid Salim, Sikorsky’s vice president of Army and Air Force systems, said in a statement on Thursday.
Sikorsky noted the T901 engine is designed to increase the UH-60M Black Hawk’s performance to include improving fuel efficiency, adding 50 percent more power and extending “lift capability and range, providing Army commanders more options for planning and executing missions.”
The first two T901 engines delivered to Sikorsky’s West Palm Beach, Florida facility will be installed in one Black Hawk for ground runs and future flight testing, the company noted, with delivery of two additional engines expected for testing on a second helicopter.
The House this week adopted an amendment to its fiscal year 2025 defense appropriations bill, passed on Friday, that shifts $63 million to the Army’s research and development account for the ITEP engine program.
“We applaud the House for passing the Fiscal Year 2025 Defense Appropriations bill and appreciate the bipartisan support for funding that will equip the U.S. Army with cutting-edge T901 engines to power its Black Hawk and Apache helicopters. We encourage the Senate to act to ensure the U.S. Army can fly higher and carry more payload sooner to meet the missions abroad and at home,” a GE Aerospace spokesperson said in a statement.
Earlier this month, the Army awarded GE Aerospace a new contract for T700 helicopter engines worth more than $1.1 billion.
A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.