F100-PW-100/-200

Powering all of the world's current F-15 figher aircraft and the F-16 fighter aircraft in 21 countries, Pratt & Whitney's family of F100 engines is the mainstay of air forces worldwide. With more than 6,900 engines produced and over 16 million flight hours, the F100 is the safest and most reliable fighter engine in the world. Propulsion of the F-15 is supplied by two Pratt and Whitney F100-PW-100 or -220 afterburning turbofan engines normally power the F-15, depending on the aircraft model. Developed especially for the F-15, these high-pressure-ratio engines have much improved efficiency over earlier engines for fighter aircraft.

The F100-PW-100 engine, currently installed on Air National Guard F-15 aircraft, is the earliest basic design production and configuration engine and also has significant operational limitations due to age. The 220E kit upgrade package will increase readiness, safety, reliability and maintainability of the F-15 fleet while improving performance and cost effectiveness. The F100-PW-220E engine upgrade program modifies F100-PW-100/-200 engines to the F100-PW-220E configuration. This modification will make these engines equivalent to the new production F100-PW-220E engine. This upgrade would significantly improve the reliability and maintainability of the engine, and has reduced the unscheduled engine removal rate by 35 percent. United Technologies Corp., West Palm Beach, Fla., was awarded on June 26, 1997 a $485,000,000 indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to provide for kits to upgrade the F100-PW and 200 engines to the F100-PW-22E configuration for use on the F-15 and F-16 aircraft. There was one proposal received. Solicitation began March 1997; negotiations were completed June 1997. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-97/D-2013).

The Navy will use the F100-PW-220 Engine in the F-16A and F-16B Adversary Aircraft in the Navy's 'Top Gun' program. These engines and aircraft are out of production and are being obtained from storage at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ. The Navy will be the only user of the 14 aircraft.

Continuing the rich history of F100 safety and reliability, the F100-PW-229 is the most mature Increased Performance Engine (IPE) available and is the engine of choice for air forces worldwide. It is the only IPE engine operationally matured in both the F-15E and F-16 Block 52 aircraft. Using technology developed from the F119 and F135 engine programs for the F/A-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the current production PW-229 incorporates modern turbine materials, cooling management techniques, compressor aerodynamics and electronic controls.

In addition to offering the most technologically advanced IPE available, Pratt & Whitney offers a comprehensive range of maintenance management programs and engine overhaul services to meet all customer requirements. These programs provide customers with low-cost maintenance solutions and superb operational readiness.

The mission essential tasks of the F100 engine program are to provide logistical and technical support to the family of F100 engines that power the F-15 and F-16 aircraft. This encompasses over 6800 engines worldwide of which 3200 power USAF F-15 & F-16 fighter aircraft. The F100 engine program is responsible for the largest sustainment program in the Air Force, consisting of a buy and repair budget of over one billion dollars annually. The logistical function entails ensuring component parts are available to meet field needs and depot production levels. Technical support is comprised of engineering support to field and depot operations to ensure safety and reliability of the engine fleet.

Recent testing of these engines has focused on support to resolve of problems encountered with engines in the field and Component Improvement Program (CIP) testing on these engines. A key part of the AEDC testing was for the F100-PW-229, the powerplant for F-15 and F-16 fighters, which marked several firsts for AEDC. This particular F100 was a "Superpacer" engine, a designation for an engine the Air Force has pulled from the line to "lead the fleet" in engine accumulated operational hours. The engine underwent approximately 100 air-on hours Acceleration Mission Test (AMT) to determine how the F100 engines will age. This marks the first time a Superpacer engine has been tested at AEDC. In addition, this test marks the first time a RAM Accelerated Mission Test has been performed in Propulsion Development Test Cell T-1. Engines undergoing RAM AMT are subjected to increased inlet pressure and temperatures to simulate high-speed flight. In order to accommodate RAM AMT testing in Test Cell T-1, several modifications were made to the cell, including inlet plenum stack-up, engine inlet duct instrumentation layout and other F100-related items to ready the cell.

RAM AMT testing specifications dictate very tight inlet pressure control performance during repeated engine power transients. The pressure control available for Test Cell T-1 utilizes specialized control logic applied to a pair of cell bypass valves to meet the requirements. Also, for the RAM AMT testing in Test Cell T-1, cell pressure requirements allow for idling the exhausting machinery and exhaust directly to atmosphere. This configuration enables the test program to realize a considerable reduction in power utilization and lower program costs during the long lower duration of RAM AMT testing.

The F100 engine was fielded in 1974 with a life expectancy of 16 years. However, this original life expectancy has been extended to 2030 or over three times the planned life. Technical challenges, safety issues and tired iron did not allow us to rely on past history to predict and support future requirements. The normal budgeting and forecasting methods were not adequate and new tools had to be developed and implemented to ensure timely and cost effective support.

Starting with the transfer of the depot workload from Kelly AFB, San Antonio, TX, to Tinker AFB, OK, in 2000 it became readily apparent that a better job had to be done in supporting the F100 engine fleet: WRE levels were at record lows, backorders at record highs, safety problems plagued the inlet fan and low pressure turbines and overall depot production was below mission requirements. F100 leadership tasked a group of stakeholders to meet the logistical and technical mission-essential tasks through improving major engine module (core, inlet fan, low pressure turbine) production levels and resolving safety issues to improve overall engine supportability to the Air Force.

Low depot production was a result of work stoppages due to unavailability of component parts from both DLA and depot managed items. The unavailability of individual parts both at depot and the field was reflected in the record high level of backorders. Backorders had peaked at over 220,000 in FY00.

Lack of piece parts was driven by lack of forecasting, procurement actions within lead time, lack of experienced personnel, lack of communication between key parties and lack of contract coverage. In short, adequate systems and controls were not in place to identify potential parts problems sufficiently far into the future to allow time to resolve the issue before it impacted production/support levels.

In FY03, the F100 engine program was facing a multitude of challenges; the war in Iraq was fast approaching, FY02 had seen multiple quality escapes from our Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) that impacted production targets, material supportability and our ability to accurately determine and forecast future requirements. Effective quality production by principle suppliers was a major concern as a result of the multiple quality escapes that occurred in FY02 and continued into FY03. Depot production was critical to the war effort.

A cross- functional organizational team was put together with representatives from the Major Commands (MAJCOM), OC-ALC/LPF (F100 Fighter Propulsion Division, Supply Chain Manager (SCM) for the F100 fleet), organic and contract depot production, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), OEM and F100 Contracting. Team members were trained in the systems and decision criteria used by each organization and tasked with improving both the processes and warfighter support. The primary mission was to sustain depot production, overcome the impacts of the quality escapes, ensure a lack of component parts would not constrain depot production and improve support for field-consumed parts.

Execution focused on improving the overall quality of products being received, reducing Mission Capable (MICAP) backorders and hours and improving War Readiness Engine (WRE) levels. Commercial and government best practices were evaluated and modified to fit the needs of the F100 engine program. The Deep Look and Engine Supportability Asset Management Plan (ESAMP) concepts were enhanced and expanded to track and forecast component part usage rates and to ensure component parts availability through buying the right parts in the needed quantities, lead time out, to support depot and field operations. Weekly, monthly and quarterly status meetings were held with all stakeholders.

The reduction of backorders enabled the field to perform timely maintenance on the engines and reduce the number of unserviceable engines that were down for supply problems. F100-100 Engines Not Mission Capable Supply (ENMCS) met the 10% standard in January 2003 for the first time in recent memory. The increased availability of parts drove down the level of work required by field units, as they no longer had to rely as much on cannibalization of other engines to meet their flying hour programs.

The F100 engine is an AF priority sustainment program with an annual budget of over $1B. The F100 is a critical asset to the nation's wartime readiness posture supporting seven Commands, 34 AF bases worldwide, and 17 foreign governments. There were 3,293 engines in the inventory as of 2003, valued at $11.6B. Many of these engines and major modules are entering the depot for a third visit. With each subsequent depot visit, rising maintenance costs and unanticipated parts shortages create significant challenges to the continued sustainment of this vital defense asset. Primarily due to these reasons, in February 2002, OC-ALC recommended the F100 as the AF Pathfinder candidate to apply Purchasing and Supply Management (PSM) techniques.

The F100 PSM team identified new opportunities to improve savings by demonstrating industry best practices on the AF's F100 engine. Purchased goods and services offer a large and growing target area for the AF in which to seek improved performance and cost savings. PSM strategically links demand planning, purchasing, inventory management, supply chain, supplier and supply base management to create continuous improvement in performance (i.e., quality, responsiveness, flexibility) and cost of purchased goods and services. The result of applying improved PSM practices is more effective and efficient supply chain integration and a higher quality and more responsive, reliable and robust supplier base.

The Joint Oil Analysis Program Technical Support Center (JOAP-TSC) was awarded a project in 2004 from the U.S. Air Force Productivity, Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (PRAM) office. The project entailed automating the removal of debris from engine oil filters, presenting the debris for energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) analysis and provide software to manipulate the x-ray hardware and report EDXRF analyses. The JOAP-TSC put in place the requirements to construct beta prototype instruments with the above capabilities. PRAM beta prototype instruments were located at LUnited Kingdome AFB and Seymour- Johnson AFB to analyze filters from F-100 engines. The JOAP-TSC applied filter debris analysis using energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence analysis (FDA-EDXRF) to profile F-100 engines. Data from the F-100 engine FDA-EDXRF profile was used to indicate abnormal wear. Engines that indicated abnormal and normal wear by FDA-EDXRF metrics were researched using the AF maintenance database. These 2004 results demonstrated an excellent correlation with the wear found in F-100 engines.