General Electric Aviation, Lynn, Massachusetts, has been awarded a maximum $394,149,546 firm-fixed price, requirements contract for supplies related to the J85 turbine jet engine. This was a sole-source acquisition using justification 10 U.S. Code 2304 (c)(1), as stated in Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This is a five-year, six-month base contract with one four-year, six-month option period. Location of performance is Massachusetts, with a Nov. 30, 2025, performance completion date. Using military services are U.S. Air Force and Navy. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2020 through 2025 defense appropriated funds and working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Richmond, Virginia.
The General Electric J85 is a small single-shaft turbojet engine. Military versions produce up to 2,950 lbf (13.1 kN) of thrust dry; afterburning variants can reach up to 5,000 lbf (22 kN). The engine, depending upon additional equipment and specific model, weighs from 300 to 500 pounds (140 to 230 kg). It is one of GE’s most successful and longest in service military jet engines, with the civilian versions having logged over 16.5 million hours of operation. The United States Air Force plans to continue using the J85 in aircraft through 2040. Civilian models, known as the CJ610, are similar but supplied without an afterburner, while the CF700 adds a rear-mounted fan for improved fuel economy.
The J85 was originally designed to power a large decoy missile, the McDonnell ADM-20 Quail. The Quail was designed to be released from a B-52 Stratofortress in-flight and fly for long distances in formation with the launch aircraft, multiplying the number of targets facing the SA-2 surface-to-air missile operators on the ground. Like the similar Armstrong Siddeley Viper being built in England, the engine on a Quail drone had no need to last for extended periods of time, so therefore could be built of low-quality materials. More than 12,000 J85 engines had been built by the time production ended in 1988. The J85 turbine jet engine is used on the F-5 military fighter jet and the T-38 military trainer aircraft.
