Pratt & Whitney Wins $25 Million Air Force Component Improvement Program Contract

Pratt & Whitney, part of RTX, has received an Air Force Sustainment Center contract worth up to $25.2 million for the Component Improvement Program covering secondary power systems and small gas turbine engines. The company will provide engineering services and research and development aimed at improving the safety, reliability and maintainability of parts used to start aircraft main engines. Work will take place in West Palm Beach, Florida, and is expected to be completed by Oct. 27, 2036.

Component Improvement Program Details

Pratt & Whitney’s work will focus on improving engine-starting components through engineering and research rather than supplying a stated quantity of production parts. The award notice frames the effort around safety, reliability and maintainability—qualities that affect how reliably the parts perform and how readily they can be kept in service.

Secondary power systems encompass more than the starter itself. In a justification for a separate Honeywell component-improvement acquisition, the Air Force describes auxiliary power units, jet fuel starters and gearboxes among the equipment used to start propulsion engines; some secondary-power components also provide power during flight. Pratt & Whitney’s announced work concerns secondary power systems and small gas turbine engines, with a stated emphasis on parts used to start main engines.

Award and Contractor Background

The Air Force awarded the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract on Oct. 28, 2026, through a sole-source acquisition. No funds were obligated at award; research and development funding is expected to be committed incrementally over the contract’s 10-year performance period.

The Air Force has also used contractor-specific agreements for related secondary-power engineering. An Air Force contract listing records a $12 million Honeywell award dating to July 2017 for engineering to improve secondary-power-system safety, reliability and maintainability. A later Honeywell component-improvement award notice describes another sole-source research and development effort. Those records provide context for the Air Force’s approach to this field of work, without identifying Honeywell’s work as the predecessor to Pratt & Whitney’s award.

This award was disclosed by the DoW in its daily press release. Additional contract details will be available on HigherGov in approximately 90 days under FA825227DB001 after the contract is formally disclosed by the government.