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Raytheon negotiates with Williams International for Tactical Tomahawk Engine

Submitted by the PEO (CU) Public Affairs Office

Raytheon announced today a stop-work order with Teledyne Continental Motors for the development of the J402-CA-402 engine planned for use in the Tactical Tomahawk missile. At the same time, the company announced it is negotiating a development contract with Williams International, which currently is performing a 60-day risk reduction study of an alternate engine design for Tactical Tomahawk.

The Teledyne engine originally proposed for Tactical Tomahawk was to be a further upgrade of the J402 turbojet currently in development for the JASSM missile, which is an upgrade of the proven Harpoon turbojet. Teledyne was unable to demonstrate the required performance improvement, recently informing Raytheon that their engine cannot meet the required combination of fuel efficiency and maximum thrust within the schedule required for the Tactical Tomahawk upgrade.

As a program risk mitigation initiative, Raytheon recently began technical discussions with several engine manufacturers and has determined that the Williams International engine offering can meet the Tactical Tomahawk performance requirements while maintaining acceptable overall cost and schedule risk.

The proposed Williams engine is a smaller version of their F-122 engine most recently flown on the German/Swedish Taurus missile. With the Williams engine development effort, the Tactical Tomahawk program will remain within budget and is expected to meet operational requirements. The program also will meet the required schedule milestones.

It should be noted that Williams lost to Teledyne in the original Raytheon Tactical Tomahawk engine competition. Williams's current proposal is a very different engine from the one proposed during the original competition. The F-122 only recently emerged as a viable candidate for Tactical Tomahawk.

Raytheon is executing a performance-based contract for development of the Tactical Tomahawk. Raytheon is ultimately responsible to the Navy for the overall performance of the missile, including selection of its engine.

The Navy continues to encourage subsystem competition for the production phase of the program, and will pursue competition for the production engine should the JASSM engine manufacturer or any other manufacturer offer an engine qualified to Tactical Tomahawk requirements.

For further information contact: Cathy Partusch, Public Affairs Officer, PEO (CU) Voice: (301) 757-6316 or e-mail her at: cpartusch@cunet.peocu.js.mil