Sikorsky receives the first two GE Aerospace T901 engines at its West Palm Beach, Florida facility for integration on a UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter. (Photo: Sikorsky)
A lead Army official said testing to date of the GE Aerospace-built T901 engine on a Black Hawk helicopter has been “very successful,” while the engine program’s future is still to be determined.
Brig. Gen. David Phillips, program executive officer for aviation, said potential production of the T901, developed under the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP) which had been targeted for a potential cut as part of the Army Transformation Initiative (ATI), will be informed by how future funding shapes out.
“That testing is ongoing. And in this coming year, and resourcing dependent, we’ll execute based on Army senior leader guidance and Congressional appropriation,” Phillips told reporters last week following a briefing at the Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington, D.C.
GE Aerospace was awarded a $517 million contract in February 2019 to develop the T901 engine for ITEP, with an aim for it to eventually power the Army’s AH-64 Apache and Black Hawk helicopters and the since-cancelled Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA).
Sikorsky conducted the first hover test of a Black Hawk with the T901 engine in May.
The fate of the ITEP program has faced uncertainty after it was included as a proposed cut under the ATI plan, while Sikorsky officials have said that funding included in the previously passed reconciliation bill has allowed testing to continue.
“That funding has been provided to us by the Army to continue the testing of the ITEP program. And we are currently working, along with GE, to shape and accelerate the test program,” Rich Benton, Sikorsky’s vice president and general manager, told reporters recently. “We want to go faster. We want to deliver capability. And so, we’ve been working tightly with the Army on how can we move at a faster pace to drive affordability into that test program and to get it out to the field faster.”
“I think success [with testing] is the number one thing we can do to keep that money going forward and push that program forward,” Benton added.
Phillips said the Army has tasked PEO Aviation with conducting an analysis of alternatives for different paths ahead on the ITEP program.
“We were looking at ways to shift that testing left should additional funding become available, looking at every possible opportunity to accelerate,” Phillips said. “As we’ve talked [about] the transformation initiatives, it’s very important to us to get these capabilities to the field.”
In testing to date, Phillips said the Black Hawk outfitted with two T901 engines has flown up to almost 6,000 feet and speeds “upwards” of 160 knots.
The Senate’s pending fiscal year 2026 defense appropriations bill restores $175 million in funding for the ITEP program, with a senior Senate GOP aide citing it as a “critical program to increase power and efficiency” on Army helicopters.
A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.
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