Manufacturers competing to supply the helicopter engine of the future to the U.S. Army announced developments on separate programs during the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) conference in Washington, D.C.

On October 4, the Advanced Turbine Engine Company (ATEC) joint venture of Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney announced its selection by the Army to demonstrate advanced variable speed turbine capabilities and other technologies in a demonstrator engine.

The aim of the contract ATEC was awarded under the Army’s Alternate Concept Engine (ACE) science and technology program is to develop and validate new engine designs that will significantly improve vertical lift, range, speed, payload, survivability and reliability of Army helicopters.

ATEC said the work complements its development of the HPW3000 engine for the Army’s Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP) to produce a new 3,000 shaft horsepower (shp) engine for UH-60 Black Hawk and AH-64E Apache helicopters. ATEC and GE Aviation—which is advancing the GE3000 engine—won preliminary design contracts from the service in August under the ITEP program.

“ACE gives us the opportunity to build on a very successful demonstration of our HPW3000 engine, and to add the variable speed turbine and other advanced features that are directly applicable to future vertical lift,” said Craig Madden, ATEC president. “We are honored to have gained the confidence of the Army customer and to be entrusted with their next advanced demonstrator engine program.”

On October 3, GE Aviation said it has started full engine testing under the Army’s Future Affordable Turbine Engine (FATE) program to design a 5,000-to-10,000 shp class turboshaft engine for current and future rotorcraft, including aircraft built under the Future Vertical Lift program.

Technologies advanced under the FATE program can be incorporated into engines including the GE3000 or upgrades of the existing T700 engines that power Apaches and Black Hawks and the T408-GE-400 that powers the U.S. Marine Corps’ CH-53K King Stallion, the manufacturer said.

“Between the T408, GE3000 and FATE programs, we have a unique multigenerational product plan that shares technologies across our military rotorcraft efforts, incorporates commercial engine technologies and fuses them together in a low-risk manner to drive high-performance and affordable engines applicable to both military and commercial aircraft,” said Jean Lydon-Rodgers, GE Aviation general manager of military systems.