Army aiming for ITEP to reach full qualification by 2028, senior leaders say

WASHINGTON — Senior Army aviation leaders are aiming to have the Improved Turbine Engine Program (ITEP) reach its full qualification rating in the next couple years, signaling the program is moving along despite delays and a near cancellation as part of the Army Transformation Initiative (ATI).

“So projected dates last year we were looking out in the late 20s. Now we’re thinking sometime in [20]28 probably for full qualification. Of course, funding dependent,” Brig. Gen. David Phillips, deputy of Program Acquisition Executive for Maneuver Air told Breaking Defense. 

The engine was originally scheduled to be delivered in 2022, but after years of delays due to supply chain issues triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic along with trouble with manufacturing advanced parts, delivery has still not occurred. Further delays resulted from a lapse in funding as the Army opted to sunset the program last year in line with the ATI. The Army did not respond to a query regarding the original qualification timeline by the time of publication. 

Congress, however, pushed back against that decision and handed the service $175 million in fiscal 2026 reconciliation funding to continue the program. It’s still unknown when the delivery will take place, and a spokesperson for the PAE Maneuver Air told Breaking Defense that the delivery timeline depends on when full qualification — which entails around 6,500 hours of testing — will be completed.

“The opportunity there that we talked about before was, if we received the reconciliation funding, if Congress supported that, then we would absolutely continue the testing that we started last year,” Phillips said in a recent interview. He added that the service completed its first flight test last May with a UH-60 Black Hawk, and since then his team has added about 30 hours of flight testing including in different altitudes.

“So we’ve continued those efforts, and fortunately, Congress supported the program with another add in the 26 budget. So that’s going to continue on with those efforts through [20]26 into probably early 2027, and then we’re really looking at opportunities to be able to pull the qualification for the entirety of the engine left,” he added. 

The ITEP, otherwise known as the T901 engine, was created to replace the T700 engines currently on all AH-64 Apaches and UH-60 Black Hawks. In 2019 General Electric was awarded the contract to develop the engine designed to provide a 50 percent increase in horsepower and a 25 percent improved fuel efficiency rate. GE did not respond to a request for comment regarding the qualification testing process or the engine’s projected delivery timeline.

Further, as the Army has pointed out, both aircraft have added components to their systems over the years, increasing the weight of the aircraft. To allow the helicopters to have long ranges, a lighter engine is needed. 

To meet full qualification, the ITEP has to undergo 1,500 hours of ground testing and “close to” 5,000 hours of testing for “full engine qualification,” according to the service. The Army did not disclose how many hours the engine has undergone thus far.