GE Aerospace and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions on Monday said they have been jointly developing small affordable engines to power unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), unmanned collaborative combat aircraft (CCA), and similar aircraft.
The two companies for the past year have been jointly developing a small affordable engine and on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing them to sign a new agreement to continue development and partner on full-scale engine production. A new agreement is expected in the coming months.
The thrust range for the UAS and CCA’s is between 600 and 1,250-pounds of thrust, the companies said. Production could begin by the end of the decade, they said.
“Our defense customers have a growing interest in small affordable engines to meet their evolving mission requirements,” Amy Gowder, president and CEO of the Defense & Systems business at GE Aerospace, said in a statement. “Our initial collaboration has been very successful, and this agreement furthers our efforts in this new dynamic military segment.”
Kratos, which has a jet engine business and develops and manufactures unmanned aerial target vehicles and an unmanned stealthy combat aircraft, first developed and ground tested the engine. After GE Aerospace and Kratos signed the existing agreement, the companies completed additional development work and are now testing the engine. Development efforts will continue and lead into altitude testing in 2025 at GE Aerospace’s test cell in Evendale, Ohio.
GE Aerospace is a legacy developer and manufacturer of engines used in fighter aircraft, commercial planes, and helicopters.
“Kratos has made significant investments in the development of our family of small, low-cost jet engines for jet-powered drones, missiles, and powered munitions that lead in technology and capability,” Eric DeMarco, president and CEO of Kratos, said in a statement. “We consider our relationship with GE Aerospace as invaluable based on our expectation and forecast for the potential future production of thousands of turbofan engines for multiple customers.”
The Air Force is managing a CCA program for unmanned jet aircraft that will include autonomous capabilities and team with manned fighters. Currently, Anduril Industries and General Atomics are conducting detailed design work for their respective CCAs with plans to build and test the aircraft.
A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.