GAO ruling sticks with regionally-built GE Aviation engine

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GE first won the a $517 million contract to engineer and make the engine in January.

“We expect the stop work order on the Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) phase … to be lifted shortly, and GE’s team is ready to execute immediately,” GE Aviation said in a statement Thursday.

The “Improved Turbine Engine Program” is the U.S. Army’s effort to modernize its Boeing AH-64 Apaches and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, GE Aviation said. Part of the Army’s modernization focus includes using the T901 engine, and Evendale-based GE Aviation said it is “committed to accelerating the T901 EMD schedule ahead of the Army’s baseline plan to support an earlier fielding in Apaches and Black Hawks.”

“We’re ready to execute on this contract and deliver the improved capabilities of the T901 to the warfighter,” Tony Mathis, president and chief executive of GE Aviation’s military business, said in the company’s statement.

Compared to GE’s T700 engine, which has powered Apaches and Black Hawks for four decades, the T901 engine offers more than a 50 percent increase in power, better fuel efficiency and lower lifecycle costs while minimizing other changes to these helicopters, GE Aviation said.

GE said the T901 turboshaft design, manufacturing, assembly and testing will be supported in Dayton, Evendale and West Chester and other site locations, including Lynn, Mass.; Huntsville, Ala.; Norwich, N.Y.; Newark, Del.; Loves Park, Ill.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Madisonville, Ky.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Muskegon, Mich.; Hooksett, N.H.; Asheville, N.C..