Contributor - UK

David Donald

GE Aerospace and Kratos Turbine Technologies (KTT), a division of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, signed a Memorandum of Understanding at Farnborough on Monday to develop and produce a family of small, affordable turbofan engines. Intended to meet the rapidly expanding market for powering a range of unmanned air vehicles, the engines could power collaborative combat aircraft (CCAs, “loyal wingmen”), loitering munitions, and cruise missiles. The deal will replace an earlier joint development agreement that also covers full-scale production.
Kratos, which has developed a range of disruptive unmanned air systems, has been working on a small turbofan for some time, which KTT has ground-tested. Kratos partnered with GE over a year ago to further development, resulting in the new GEK family, starting with the GEK800 engine offering 800 pounds of thrust. Developed with scalability in mind, the design delivers a ceiling thrust level of around 3,000 pounds. The first engines are almost ready for further testing, with altitude trials due to begin next year at GE’s facilities in Evendale, Ohio.
Destined chiefly for uncrewed combat applications such as CCAs and missiles, the engines do not need the level of durability and high-cycle capability of conventional engines for aircraft with crews on board. Instead, the design allows for a life lasting a few hundred cycles, rather than several thousand, enabling significant cost savings.
For GE, the project represents something of a new discipline, requiring the adoption of new approaches to design and manufacturing to meet the growing customer needs for affordable mass. For Kratos, the agreement answers the need to partner with a major engine producer to develop and bring the engines into large-scale production.
The companies will build the GEK family in a new facility, the site of which remains under discussion with state and other authorities. The first platform applications have already been determined but remain classified for now.

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