AFA 2025: Pratt & Whitney unveils new family of engines for munitions, unmanned aircraft

A graphic image of Pratt & Whitney's new family of engines for Collaborative Combat Aircraft and munitions. (Pratt & Whitney)

Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business, is developing a new family of engines that can power munitions and Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), according to an RTX statement on 22 September.

The turbofan engines, scalable from 500 lb to 1,800 lb of thrust, are being developed by Pratt & Whitney's “Gatorworks team, which prioritised development speed and affordability”, Jill Albertelli, president of Pratt & Whitney's Military Engines business, said in the statement.

“The scalability of the architecture, the commonality across models, and the use of additive manufacturing will allow us to significantly reduce development and production timelines as we look at existing and future applications with customers,” she added.

It will also enable Pratt & Whitney to “take lessons learned from one [engine] to another, but also to have it available for several different applications”, Albertelli told journalists during a media briefing on 15 September, ahead of the Air & Space Forces Association's (AFA's) 2025 Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, from 22 to 24 September.

“We will be doing some initial testing later this year and then have a second series of expected testing to run in early 2026 to validate some key designs,” she said, adding that the engine family will be available for both domestic and international customers.

Capability range

The engine family takes advantage of developments in other Pratt & Whitney products but is not part of an existing product line, Albertelli said. “It is something else that we have been working on for some time,” she said, noting that it does not yet have its own designation.