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Honeywell Aerospace wins contract to provide engines for UK military helicopters

Phoenix Business Journal

Honeywell Aerospace has signed a contract to supply 34 of the company’s workhorse T55 engines for the United Kingdom military.

The contract, awarded through the U.S. Army Foreign Military Sales office, will build the latest model of the Honeywell T55-GA-714A engine for the U.K. Ministry of Defence’s fleet of H-47 Extended Range Chinook helicopters.

Financial details of the deal were not immediately disclosed.

Honeywell (Nasdaq: HON) said the deal is the latest in a longstanding relationship with a close ally.

“We have a long-standing relationship with the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence and we appreciate the opportunity to continue supporting them on their new H-47 Extended Range Chinook Helicopter with our latest T55-GA-714A engine configuration,” said Dave Marinick, president, Engines and Power Systems, Honeywell Aerospace, in a statement. “The latest contract to supply 34 T55 engines is a testament to the U.K. MOD’s confidence in our battle-proven engines. To date, our T55 engines have logged some 12 million hours of operation on the Boeing CH-47 and MH-47 Chinook helicopters.”

T55 engines have been in use and evolving since 1961, and the model going to the British military allows Chinooks to travel up to 170 knots with shaft horsepower as high as 5,000. Honeywell said that more than 900 military and civil CH-47 helicopters powered by T55s are in use around the world.

In 2021, Honeywell signed a four-year, $476 million contract for new production and spare T55-GA-714A engines for the helicopters. That indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract means Honeywell is providing the engines for Boeing’s Philadelphia production line, which supplies the Army and foreign partner nations. The contract also provides spares for the Army’s existing Chinook fleet.

Honeywell is currently working on development of advanced models of the T55 engine, including the 714C model, which uses 8% less fuel than the current version and boosts shaft horsepower to 6,000.

Next-generation aircraft decision could boost Arizona jobs

Honeywell is also working on the engine for what could become the U.S. Army’s next-generation aircraft, known as the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA).

Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin Sikorsky-Boeing picked Honeywell’s HTS7500 turboshaft engine for its Defiant X helicopter, which project officials say can fly twice as fast and twice as far as the Black Hawk. Each one of the ‘copters would employ two of the Honeywell engines.

Work on the project could result in hundreds of new engineering and supply chain jobs in Arizona, with an estimated $6.6 billion impact on the state, Honeywell has said.

A decision on that project appears to be imminent, according to National Defense magazine, and could be announced this fall.

 


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