The Air Force has awarded multimillion contracts to two industry teams to design small prototype engines for the service’s future Collaborative Combat Aircraft, according to Feb. 23 announcements.
CCA engines
While Air Force leaders are still refining concepts for the next increment of Collaborative Combat Aircraft, competition to produce compact, low-cost engines for those aircraft is already heating up.
RTX's Pratt and Whitney is developing a new class of engines to power everything from loitering munitions and cruise missiles to Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The new “scalable” family of engines has not been named yet.
There are a lot of new demands on the government-industry propulsion enterprise—ranging from exquisite new fighter engines to cheap, off-the-shelf powerplants for drones—that will require sustained support, experts said.
The Air Force will soon award study contracts for prototype engines to power Collaborative Combat Aircraft. But the service insists it is leaving the door open to a wide range of options and thrust classes.