The Honeywell/Pratt & Whitney joint-venture Advanced Turbine Engine Co. (ATEC) successfully completed the preliminary design review by the U.S. Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate and other government customers for the advanced affordable turbine engine (AATE) technology demonstrator program. The Army awarded the $109 million AATE contract to ATEC in May 2008 and set goals of 65-percent improvement in shaft horsepower/weight ratio and 25-percent improvement in fuel consumption for the next-generation 3,000-shp turboshaft. The AATE program is validating technologies that could meet these goals, and the engine could be used to retrofit UH-60 Black Hawks and AH-64 Apaches currently powered by the T700. Next steps in the AATE program include detailed design, followed by validation testing this year and full engine engine tests in 2011.