Blumenthal praises DOD’s $2B award to CT’s Pratt & Whitney for work on engines

The U.S. Department of Defense announced Tuesday that Pratt & Whitney was awarded a $2 billion contract to work on new F135 engines, according to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal.

Blumenthal, D-Conn., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. “this $2 billion contract is fantastic news for the unrivaled Pratt & Whitney workers in East Hartford and Middletown.

“Connecticut’s defense industry is strong and every contract is a vote of confidence for our world class workforce. F-35s are critical to our national defense and the F135 engine remains the propulsion system it needs to maintain air dominance,” Blumenthal said. “I will keep advocating for this important work to be awarded to Connecticut manufacturers.”

U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1, co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Strike Fighter Caucus, said in March, “For the last decade, the Pratt & Whitney engine has exceeded expectations and powered the aircraft through three major air vehicle and weapons payloads upgrades.”

The Department of Defense said in its release to Congress, “Raytheon Technologies Corp., doing business as Pratt and Whitney Military Engines, East Hartford, Connecticut is awarded a $2,023,073,136”  to a “previously awarded contract.”  The statement called it a “fixed-price-incentive-firm, cost-plus-incentive-fee, cost reimbursable modification.”

The DOD statement said work “will be performed in El Cajon and San Diego, California; Cheshire, Cromwell, East Hartford, Manchester, and Middletown, Connecticut; Columbus, Georgia; Indianapolis and South Bend, Indiana; North Berwick, Maine; Whitehall, Michigan; Elmwood Park, New Jersey; Portland, Oregon; Hampton, Virginia; and Kent, Washington, and is expected to be completed by December 2025.”