The U.S. Air Force has awarded $707.3M in potential contract funds to General Electric to build F110 turbofan fighter aircraft engines for Bulgaria, Slovakia, Taiwan and Qatar. General Electric has won $707.3 million to supply F110 engines to power F-16 fighter jets of Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Taiwan. For Qatar, the engines will power the twin-engined Boeing F-15QT. The General Electric F110 is an afterburning turbofan jet engine produced by GE Aviation.
GE will provide F110-GE-129 engines along with spares and updated engine management systems through four foreign military sales transactions that are part of an under an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, , the Pentagon said in a statement Tuesday.The AF Life Cycle Management Center is obligating $353.6M in FMS funds at the time of award. Work under the sole-source contract will take place in Cincinnati through Dec. 31, 2026.
The F110 engine uses the same engine core design as the General Electric F101. The F110 currently powers 86% of the US Air Force F-16C/Ds. The F110-GE-100 provides around 4,000 lbf (17.8 kN) more thrust than the F100-PW-200 and requires more air, which led to the increase in the area of the engine intake. The F-16C/D Block 30/32s were the first to be built with a common engine bay, able to accept both engines, with block 30s having the bigger intake (known as “Big Mouth”) and block 32s retaining the standard intake.
The F110-GE-129 engines, with 29,400 lbf (131 kN) of thrust, power 40 F-15 fighters of South Korea. This is the first time production F-15s will be powered by a GE engine, since all previous F-15 models were powered by Pratt and Whitney. The GE engines will be manufactured through a joint licensing agreement with Samsung Techwin Company. It has also been chosen by the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) to power its F-15SG, and Saudi Arabia to power its F-15SA.
