The US Air Force (USAF) wants to sole source Boeing F-15EX Advanced Eagle fighter engines from General Electric (GE) because that is what it did for the F-15QA model it sold to Qatar as part of a Foreign Military Sale (FMS), according to a top officer.
GE is providing its F110-GE-129 engines in the F-15QA as part of an initial batch of 36 aircraft worth USD6.17 billion that was approved in June 2017. The USAF announced on 23 January that it wanted to buy, without competition, as many as 480 F110-GE-129s, engine monitoring system computers, integrated logistics support, support equipment, and tooling as part of its F-15EX deal. Pratt & Whitney filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on 7 February.
The US Air Force wants to sole source General Electric’s F110-GE-129 engine for its F-15EX because it was the same engine provided in the F-15QA for Qatar. (General Electric)
General Arnold Bunch, Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) chief, told Jane’s on 28 February that it is possible the service wanted to sole source the F-15EX engine to accelerate the aircraft’s procurement.
“(It) depends on how fast you are trying to go and what you are trying to do,” Gen Bunch said when asked why the service would not want the benefits of a competition when procuring the F-15EX engines.
The USAF said in its 23 January sole source announcement that the F-15EX requires a propulsion system to support its Rapid Fielding Program, which is intended to refresh and replace ageing F-15C/D aircraft. These platforms have Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-200 engines. The F-15EX, the announcement said, requires delivery of a propulsion system certified for installation in the platform, including integration with the fly-by-wire flight-control system.
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