Lockheed picks engine to bolster interim tanker case for US Air Force

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin on Tuesday announced it has chosen a General Electric Aerospace engine for the aerial refueling tanker it’s searching for to sell to a wavering Air Force.

Lockheed picked GE’s CF6-80E1 engine for its planned LMXT strategic tanker, which could be a variation of Airbus’s A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport.

Over the subsequent decade, the Air Force plans to purchase about 75 tankers to tide it over between the Boeing-made KC-46 Pegasus — of which the service plans to purchase 179 units — and a next-generation design that could possibly be fielded within the latter half of the 2030s.

Lockheed hopes its proposed LMXT can fill that interim role, which previously has been known as a “bridge” tanker.

However the Air Force has downgraded its procurement plans for the interim tanker, announcing in March that it had decided to chop in half the unique plans to purchase 150 of them and speed up the procurement of the next-generation tanker. And Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has suggested the service could forgo a contest for the interim tanker, and as a substitute buy one other series of modified KC-46s from Boeing.

The Air Force’s surprise announcement upended the state of play on its future tanker vision, and made Lockheed’s path to success on LMXT tougher.

In a briefing with reporters Tuesday, Larry Gallogly, head of Lockheed’s campaign, said the corporate wants its engine decision to point out the Air Force that its LMXT tanker could possibly be a viable selection for the service if it decides to launch a contest.

“We would like the Air Force to be very confident that we’re the low-risk solution,” he said. “We do need to persuade the Air Force that we’re able to go ahead, but we also need to point out the Air Force exactly what they’d be getting in the event that they entered this competition — what’s the true alternative?”

Gallogly said Lockheed hopes the positive 50-year track record of GE’s CF6 series of engines on other planes corresponding to the C-5M Super Galaxy and the present Air Force One presidential planes will make it easier for the Air Force to go for a contest.

“This aircraft has the space, it has the electrical power requirements,” he said. This engine would offer “a number of electrical power on the aircraft to grow with the mission. … After we take a look at the Pacific theater specifically … there might be this insatiable need for gas. And if the Air Force chooses to sole-source this interim block of tankers, we set ourselves up for a single point of failure for bulk delivery of fuel in-theater.”

Abdoulaye Ndiaye, the overall manager for GE Aerospace’s mobility engines program, said the Royal Australian Air Force now flies MRTT aircraft with GE’s CF6-80E1 engines, and the Spanish Air Force plans to make use of those engines on its future MRTT fleet.

Lockheed selected this version of GE’s CF6 engine over other unspecified engines because it could deliver greater thrust — almost 70,000 kilos — and higher fuel efficiency than previous models, Gallogly said.

If the Air Force goes with LMXT, Lockheed Martin plans to construct it in Mobile, Alabama, and Marietta, Georgia.

Lawmakers corresponding to Rep. Jerry Carl, R-Alabama, have criticized the Air Force for considering skipping a contest. In May 2022, Carl made an unsuccessful try and add an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that will have forced a tanker competition, saying lawmakers couldn’t allow the Air Force to “run away with our checkbook and do what they need to do.”

The Air Force has not yet released its requirements for the subsequent tanker purchase, but Gallogly said the strategy of setting requirements will likely be finished in late June or early July.

Lockheed expects the Air Force to release a request for information after the necessities are done, he said, and by the top of the yr, it would be clearer if the service plans to carry a contest.

“After we see those final requirements, that can give us a a lot better idea of how well the LMXT is aligned with the priorities of the Air Force,” Gallogly said. “We predict we’ve got a reasonably good idea of what those requirements are going to be, but we’re looking forward to really seeing those requirements in writing.”