Northrop Grumman To Develop Future F-35 Fighter Jet Engine

Northrop Grumman has been awarded a contract by the US Air Force for new military engine technology development program that provides an improvement in affordable mission capability.

The Department of defense announced Thursday that a “not-to-exceed $20,000,000 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract” is being awarded to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. for “Advanced Turbine Technologies for Affordable Mission (ATTAM) capability Phase I”.

The DOD release says “The mission of the ATTAM Phase I program is to develop, demonstrate, and transition advanced turbine propulsion, power and thermal technologies that provides improvement in affordable mission capability.  This approach extends to a range of legacy, emerging, and future military propulsion, power and thermal technology needs in multiple applications”.

Work will be performed in Redondo Beach, California, and is expected to be completed by Feb. 8, 2027. 

The ATTAM Phase I program is a capability based planning and execution development construct for turbine technology for the Air Force. The Turbine Engine Division, Aerospace Systems Directorate, of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) seeks to advance the state-of-the-art in turbine engine technology.

According to the media reports, these adaptive engine technology demonstrators will lead to a follow-on competition to develop a final prototype of an engine that can be inserted into the Lockheed Martin F-35A after 2021, allowing that short-ranged fighter a range boost of up to 25%.