Pratt & Whitney wins $2.9B Navy order to supply F-35 F135 propulsion through 2028

Published:

August 25, 2025

Updated:

August 25, 2025

Pratt & Whitney wins $2.9B Navy order to supply F-35 F135 propulsion through 2028

U.S. Air Force photos by Jill Pickett

The Navy awarded Pratt & Whitney a not-to-exceed $2.88 billion modification to produce 141 F135 propulsion systems for F-35 Lot 18. The award covers engines for the Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy, along with partner nations and foreign military sales customers. Work runs through February 2028 and uses a mix of fixed-price and incentive fee lines set under an undefinitized change to an existing contract. Defense officials confirm the contracting authority rests with Naval Air Systems Command in Patuxent River.

What Pratt will deliver for the 141 F135 engines and by when

The Lot 18 engine buy matches the airframe quantities cleared for 145 F-35s under a seperate award made in late 2024. The engine line supports all three variants. F135 deliveries will feed airframe final assembly and checkout in the United States and partner facilities overseas. The schedule points to a steady flow through early 2028, which aligns with the production window the airframe contractor is targeting for Lot 18 deliveries.

The DoD notice lists a broad supplier footprint. Major work occurs at East Hartford and Middletown in Connecticut and at Indianapolis in Indiana. Additional work falls to sites in Washington, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, California, New Jersey, Georgia, Virgina, and other locations inside and outside the continental United States. The mix reflects the established F135 industrial base that has powered every F-35 produced to date.

According to industry sources, factory managers expect normal output after a spring labor stoppage in Connecticut slowed some work orders. The company’s parent forecasted recovery within the calender year during investor remarks, and suppliers report parts flow has improved since June.

Funding split and international participation in Lot 18

Obligated funds on award draw from multiple lines across fiscal 2024 and 2025, plus partner and FMS accounts. The breakdown is explicit in the contract notice and shows a balanced split between Navy and Air Force procurement plus non-U.S. funding.

Fiscal 2024 Navy aircraft procurement about $575.7 million and fiscal 2025 Navy aircraft procurement about $80.0 million
Fiscal 2024 Air Force aircraft procurement about $537.3 million and fiscal 2025 Air Force aircraft procurement about $77.3 million
Foreign Military Sales funds about $513.8 million
Non-U.S. participant funds about $228.5 million

The figures confirm shared cost responsibility across the program’s coalition. Funds obligated will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. That matters for schedule stability across long-lead items and multiple engine lines.

Which plants handle F135 work and what they will do by 2028

The government lists specific location percentages that frame the workload:

East Hartford accounts for 17.3 percent and Middletown another 8 percent.
Indianapolis holds 10.4 percent.
Kent, Washington, stands at 7 percent.
North Berwick, Maine, at 4 percent.

Additional clusters include El Cajon, California, Cromwell, Connecticut, Whitehall, Michigan, and Portland, Oregon, each at or near the low single digits. Various other U.S. locations carry more than a quarter of the effort, and non-U.S. sites add a smaller share.

Defense officials confirm the schedule objective remains uninterrupted deliveries through February 2028.

Related Navy awards for F-18 landing gear and F-35 tooling

The engine action posted alongside other naval aviation awards. Boeing received a $315.1 million sole-source delivery order to repair F/A-18E/F landing gear. Work takes place in St. Louis, Fort Walton Beach, and Canadian sites, and runs to September 2029. The notice cites the sole-source statute and identifies Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support in Philadelphia as the contracting office.

The Navy also issued a separate F-35 production support action for special tooling and special test equipment. A recent notice shows a Lockheed Martin Aeronautics modification near $28 million that funds program management, tooling, aircraft modifications, and flight test instrumentation tied to production. Work is slated in Fort Worth through December 2028 under Naval Air Systems Command.

Our analysis shows the Lot 18 engine buy keeps propulsion deliveries matched to airframe plans, limits risk of engine-airframe imbalance in 2026 through 2028, and sustains the cross-service and partner demand signal that anchors the F-35 enterprise.

Pratt & Whitney wins $2.9B Navy order to supply F-35 F135 propulsion through 2028

What Pratt will deliver for the 141 F135 engines and by when

Funding split and international participation in Lot 18

Which plants handle F135 work and what they will do by 2028

Related Navy awards for F-18 landing gear and F-35 tooling

REFERENCE SOURCES

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