The Next Great Engine War Was Not What You Thought It Was
Since April 15, 1953, the United States has maintained unmatched air superiority, not allowing a single death of U.S. ground troops by enemy aircraft (GE Aerospace, 2023a). In the following decades, air dominance has been a critical enabler of how the U.S. military fights, maneuvers, and projects combat power worldwide. Although air dominance requires a fusion of multiple technologies, fighter aircraft engines are one of the most challenging and complex mechanical systems ever produced. They require tremendous engineering talent, immense precision, advanced manufacturing techniques, and cutting-edge material science, among other factors. These challenges were not overcome by chance but through a long history of creative acquisition solutions, bitter competition, and revolutionary technology development (Drewes, 1987, pp. 15–16).
The fierce competition between Pratt & Whitney (P&W) and General Electric (GE) yielded two world-class fighter engines, an energized competitive industrial base, and significant cost savings.
In the 1980s, the Air Force oversaw a period of engine development that author Robert Drewes coined, “The Great Engine War.” The fierce competition between Pratt & Whitney (P&W) and General Electric (GE) yielded two world-class fighter engines, an energized competitive industrial base, and significant cost savings (Drewes, 1987, p. 128). When the Air Force competed engines for the Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) (predecessor of the F-22), the engine war continued; however, it did not progress beyond the fly-off. After a pause, the Great Engine War appeared ready for restart when Congress pushed for a Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program dual-source approach. However, the battle between GE and P&W for the JSF engine was short-lived as budget constraints forced the DoD’s termination of GE’s F136 engine program. Recognizing the need for continued propulsion research and development, the DoD then initiated the next potential Great Engine War, a series of technology development programs to develop a new generation of adaptive engines. Once again, the first set of adaptive engine programs met a similar fate as the F136 engine when the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) was discontinued in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget before production (Tirpak, 2023). Despite these missed opportunities, the United States still enjoys dominant aircraft propulsion systems
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Defense ARJ , Summer 2025, Vol. 32 No. 2: 104—130
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