Rolls-Royce awarded $89 million MissionCare™ contract for U.S. Navy T-45 trainer engine support

Thursday, 16 December 2010

Rolls-Royce, the global power systems company, has been awarded an $89 million MissionCare™ contract by the U.S. Department of Defense Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River to provide support for the F405 (Adour) engines that power the U.S. Navy’s T-45 training aircraft.

This contract modification exercises the second option year to provide guaranteed engine availability, which includes support ranging from on-wing through intermediate and depot level maintenance, under the base contract signed in 2008. MissionCare is used within the Rolls-Royce Defense sector to apply commercial Power By The Hour® principles to the unique requirements of the defense business.

Wayne Moni, Chief Operating Officer of Rolls-Royce Defense Services said, “We are proud of our partnership with the U.S. Navy and its mission to prepare student aviators for jet carrier aviation and tactical strike missions. We look forward to another successful year of providing the best engine readiness and availability.”

Under the terms of the agreement, which is administered by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Rolls-Royce will provide all maintenance, support, troubleshooting, parts supply and logistics for both the F405 engine and the aircraft gas turbine starting system. This contract provides comprehensive propulsion services to more than 200 aircraft, operating at four main Naval Air Stations - Kingsville, Texas; Meridian, Mississippi; Pensacola, Florida and Patuxent River, Maryland.

Rolls-Royce manufactures the F405-RR-401 (Adour) engine in partnership with Turbomeca. Rolls-Royce has been involved with T-45 program support since its inception through a variety of contracts awarded by both the U.S. Navy and Boeing.

Rolls-Royce, a world-leading provider of power systems and services for use on land, at sea and in the air, has established a strong position in global markets - civil aerospace, defence aerospace, marine and energy.
As a result of this strategy, Rolls-Royce today has a broad customer base comprising more than 600 airlines, 4,000 corporate and utility aircraft and helicopter operators, 160 armed forces, more than 2,000 marine customers, including 70 navies, and energy customers in nearly 120 countries, with an installed base of 54,000 gas turbines.
Rolls-Royce employs 39,000 skilled people in offices, manufacturing and service facilities in 50 countries. The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment, and to further developing employee skills.
The initial F-405 engine MissionCare contract was awarded to Rolls-Royce in October 2003 and has been renewed annually. It is truly “power by the hour’ – a single contract line item number is used to pay a fixed price per aircraft hours flown at each operating base. Contract performance is measured almost exclusively against the fleet-driven performance metric of engine and starter system availability.
In September 2010, Rolls-Royce completed 500,000 flight hours of MissionCare™ support for the F405-RR-401 (Adour) engines that power the U.S. Navy’s T-45 training aircraft.
The U.S. Navy’s T-45 Goshawk aircraft completed one million flight hours in August 2010. More than 3,600 student aviators from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and several international militaries have received instruction on the system before earning their “wings of gold” naval aviator insignia.
As the principal jet trainer for the Chief of Naval Air Training, the T-45 is used to prepare student aviators to transition to front-line Navy and Marine Corps fleet aircraft, including F/A-18 Hornet, EA-6B Prowler, EA-18G Growler, AV-8B Harrier and the future F-35 Lightning II. The T-45 is used for intermediate and advanced portions of the Navy-Marine Corps pilot training program for jet carrier aviation and tactical strike missions. Currently, the T-45 is scheduled to remain in service with the Navy until 2035.
More than 2,800 Adour engines have been sold to 22 countries around the world, and the combined fleet has flown in excess of eight million flight hours.

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