F119 Depot Work Ramps Up

Scheduled depot maintenance on Pratt & Whitney’s F119 engines that power the Air Force’s F-22s is increasing at Tinker AFB, Okla., according to a base release. Technicians with the 76th Propulsion Maintenance Group last December completed depot work on the first F119 at Tinker’s Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, states the Aug. 29 release. The complex received two engines earlier this year and expects two more before the year’s end, said Brian Thompson, Oklahoma City’s F119 program manager. The F119 is scheduled for programmed depot maintenance upon reaching 4,325 total accumulated cycles of use, and some of the engines are reaching that threshold, said Thompson. The F119 has five modules—fan, gearbox, core, low-pressure turbine, and nozzle—that the technicians disassemble and repair. The PDM process takes 13 months to 14 months to complete. The F119 workload is projected to double going forward: eight engines in Fiscal 2014, 16 in 2015, and 32 in 2016, states the release. (Tinker report by Mike W. Ray)