LYNN, Mass., and Washington — The GE Aerospace contract, worth up to nearly $2.9 billion, will provide parts for the company’s F414 engines that power the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler, according to a Defense Department announcement posted Tuesday.
The award is structured as a performance-based logistics arrangement that compensates the vendor for meeting defined outcomes. It runs through August 2031 with no option periods, according to the notice. GE did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
The deal lands as GE weighs how to sustain output of the larger F414 for the Navy’s aging Super Hornet and Growler fleets while ramping production of the older F404 engine for platforms such as the Air Force’s new T-7 Red Hawk trainer. Company officials said during a media tour of GE’s Lynn, Massachusetts, facilities on Monday that they expect to roughly double F404 output over the next five years, while declining to provide specific rate forecasts.
“Right now we’re in the middle of a transformation, where we used to be 414 heavy. Now, we’re going to be 404 heavy,” Ryan Wood, GE’s executive plant manager for assembly and test operations, told reporters on the production line tour.
Amy Gowder, president and CEO of GE’s defense and systems business, said the company is exploring new production approaches to scale engines like the F404.
“We’re trying to move to a different supply base that maybe has different commercial-off-the-shelf type standards that have operated this volume,” Gowder said.
Paul Ferraro, GE’s vice president and general manager of defense engines and services, said the firm is pushing additive manufacturing into legacy engine lines to speed production, cut costs, and reduce weight where feasible.
“Now we’re going back through legacy engines like the F404,” Ferraro said. “As we continue to evolve the producibility of those engines, now we’re looking at candidate parts that might lend itself to [3D] printing and additive manufacturing as well.”
Demand tied to programs such as Boeing’s F-15EX, which uses twin GE F110 engines, and prospective unmanned systems is driving broader manufacturing increases. Ferraro acknowledged persistent supply chain pressures but said GE is focused on meeting higher rates.
“We hear constantly about the challenges in the supply base. How do we ramp to rate? How do we respond to this increase in demand? It’s been challenging, to be honest with you,” he said.
GE Aerospace contract linked to DIU hypersonic effort
The multibillion-dollar engine parts award follows GE’s announcement that the Defense Innovation Unit selected the company to provide a liquid-fueled hypersonic test vehicle, a key step as GE pursues high-speed systems.
The award falls under DIU’s Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities program, which aims to expand flight test options for high-speed vehicles. A GE spokesperson said the next phase will last about 24 months and include flight testing. DIU did not respond to a request for comment before publication.
Steve “Doogie” Russell, vice president and general manager of GE’s Edison Works, called the DIU contract a significant milestone. He said GE will serve as prime contractor to integrate an all-up-round hypersonic vehicle and provide technologies including a dual-mode ramjet capable of operating at subsonic and supersonic speeds.
The HyCAT test asset GE plans to deliver will use a solid rocket motor for boost. Dean Modroukas, general manager of hypersonics at GE, said the company has multiple teammates contributing components, but their names are not yet being disclosed.
Russell added that while HyCAT work could theoretically feed into a hypersonic weapon line, that is not the current aim.
“This is a case where we do have the ability to be the full integrator for this test bed project, but we’re really focused on being a propulsion solution provider across this spectrum of activity,” he said.
Programs such as Boeing’s F-15EX, which uses twin GE F110 engines, are part of a broader defense aviation landscape that also includes export-focused efforts like the Iraq helicopter sale cleared by the State Department.