U.S. Navy Awards GE38 engine production contract

The U.S. Navy awarded GE Aviation a multi-year (2014-2017), $68.5m System Demonstration Test Article (SDTA) contract to manufacture and support 16 GE38-1B engines for the Operational Evaluation phase of the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion aircraft development program. The contract builds on the success of the System Design and Development (SDD) contracts with Sikorsky dating back to 2006, which covered engine factory qualification testing and the delivery of 20 flight test engines to support the Technical Evaluation (Tech-Eval) phase of the CH-53K program. Three 7,500 shaft horsepower class GE38-1B engines (designated T408-GE-400 by the U.S. Navy) provide the power for the CH-53K King Stallion aircraft. The GE38 engine will give the CH-53K helicopter the power to carry a 27,000-pound external load over a mission radius of 110 nautical miles in hot weather conditions, nearly triple the external load carrying capacity of the service’s current CH-53E SUPER STALLION™ aircraft.