U.S. Navy awards GE $2.87 billion for F/A-18 engines

The U.S. Navy has awarded GE Aerospace a five-year contract worth up to $2.87 billion to keep the engines powering its F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet and EA-18G Growler fleet running, one of the largest single logistics contracts the Navy has issued for the program.

The performance-based logistics contract covers support for 17 components of the F414 engine. Work will be performed primarily in Lynn, Massachusetts, GE’s longtime home for the F414 program, which will handle 90 percent of the effort. The remaining 10 percent will be performed at the Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center Southeast in Jacksonville, Florida, where GE has partnered with the Navy on depot-level repair work for nearly two decades. The contract runs through August 2031 and includes no option periods.

The award was made on a sole-source basis, with only one company solicited and one offer received, under authority set out in federal procurement law. Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support in Philadelphia is managing the contract.

Fiscal 2026 Navy working capital funds totaling $198.2 million will be committed at the time of award to fund an initial delivery order, with $148.7 million of that amount obligated concurrently as an undefinitized contract action. Those funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Subsequent delivery orders issued under the contract will draw on future fiscal year working capital funds, which similarly will not expire.

Performance-based logistics contracts work differently from traditional parts purchasing. Rather than the Navy buying individual components as needed, GE is paid to guarantee the availability and readiness of the F414 components covered under the deal, shifting responsibility for inventory management and repair turnaround onto the contractor. The Navy first moved to this model for the F414 engine in 2006, when GE won its original four-year F414 PBL contract covering more than 600 engines already in the fleet.

The F414 is a derivative of GE’s earlier F404 engine, the powerplant that flew the original F/A-18 Hornet, enlarged and improved to power the newer Super Hornet and Growler. The Navy’s long-range procurement plan has called for more than 1,000 F414 engines across its history, and GE has delivered more than 725 of them to date, according to the company. The engine has logged more than 750,000 flight hours across the fleet and has consistently exceeded the Navy’s reliability targets, according to GE.

The F414 also powers Australia’s fleet of F/A-18F Super Hornets, which became the aircraft’s first international customer in 2007, and the engine has separately been adapted to power Saab’s Gripen fighter under the designation F414G.