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Connecticut’s Pratt & Whitney gets $1.3B contract for F135 engine upgrades • Rhode Island Current

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Connecticut’s Pratt & Whitney gets .3B contract for F135 engine upgrades • Rhode Island Current


This story was originally published in Connecticut Mirror, a content partner with Rhode Island Current. Read the original version here.

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded a $1.3 billion contract to Pratt & Whitney late Monday, giving a major boost to a program that will modernize the engines used in military fighter jets and help protect jobs in Connecticut as well as around the country.

The contract for the F135 Engine Core Upgrade Propulsion System comes months after the East Hartford-based company was named the sole provider of the engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program for at least another seven years.

It will provide support to the RTX-owned company related to design, analysis, testing and product support planning surrounding the upgrades to the fighter jet program for the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy and “non-Department of Defense cooperative program partners.”

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Pratt & Whitney noted the F135 program has supported tens of thousands of jobs across 43 states, which includes Connecticut as well as others in the region like Maine. More than 700 engineers and program managers work full-time on the program, according to the company.

A little more than half of the work will happen in East Hartford, with much smaller percentages in Middletown and Windsor Locks, according to the Pentagon. The department estimated work on the upgrades to wrap up around March 2028. The remainder of the work will be performed in Maine, Indiana, Florida, Illinois and Puerto Rico.

“This contract is critical to continuing our positive forward momentum on this program,” Jill Albertelli, president of Pratt & Whitney’s Military Engines business, said in a statement. “It allows us to continue work in the risk reduction phase with a fully staffed team focused on design maturation, aircraft integration, and mobilizing the supply base to prepare for production.”

As one of Connecticut’s biggest manufacturers, Pratt & Whitney has been producing the engine used by Lockheed Martin’s F-35 aircraft since it was awarded the Pentagon contract more than two decades ago. The company has its headquarters in East Hartford with a facility in Middletown as well as a supply chain that consists of about 100 suppliers. About 11,000 people are employed between the East Hartford and Middletown facilities.

U.S. Rep. John Larson, D-1st District, said 38 of those suppliers are in his Hartford-based district. Larson and others in Connecticut’s congressional delegation have worked on the issue for years, which he said in a past interview spanned multiple presidents and four U.S. senators from Connecticut.

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2 dead, 1 seriously hurt after crash on I-95 South in Warwick

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2 dead, 1 seriously hurt after crash on I-95 South in Warwick


WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.

Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.

According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.

The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.

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The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.

A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.

State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.

The investigation remains ongoing.

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Judge rejects DOJ push for Rhode Island voter information

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Judge rejects DOJ push for Rhode Island voter information


A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.

Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.

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McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.

“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.

Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”

“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”

The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.

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The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.

The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.

At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.

The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Single Dad Says Grandparents’ Rights Trial Has Cost Him More Than $500K, but He'll Do ‘Whatever It Takes’ to Keep Daughter Safe

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Single Dad Says Grandparents’ Rights Trial Has Cost Him More Than 0K, but He'll Do ‘Whatever It Takes’ to Keep Daughter Safe


As the two-year anniversary of his wife’s death approaches, widowed single father Scott Naso is sounding an alarm to fellow parents across the country — and especially in Rhode Island, where he lives with his now 4-year-old daughter, Laila.



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