Defense Business Brief: Takeaways from America’s first jet engine test site

Defense Business Brief

LYNN, Mass.— Rosie the robot and her automated compatriot Thomas are the stars of GE Aerospace’s automated manufacturing line at the company’s factory here. Decked in yellow, the towering machines are reminiscent of the Transformer Bumblebee’s dislocated arms. They move in concert seamlessly to collect tools, machine parts, and assemble components for the T700, which are found in Boeing’s Apache and Sikorsky’s Black Hawks, and, in the future,T408 engines for the Marine Corps’ CH-53-K King Stallion.

It’s part of a multiyear $100 million investment in the plant, which is hyperfocused on upgrades—from machines to workflows—to make more engines and deliver them faster.

“This was historically a bottleneck for our businesses,” Dan Martin, who manages manufacturing engineering and leads a team charged with integrating robotics and automation inLynn plant, said of the piece of the business that makes rotating parts, like cooling plates. “We had quality issues here. We had capacity issues here. The robotics piece now comes online, and these lines are no longer constrained for us.”

That need to go fast will be key once the military starts putting in high-volume orders for collaborative combat aircraft, or robot wingmen for fighter jets.

“We're designing from the very beginning to meet the right production,” starting with small engines, Amy Gowder , GE Aerospace's president and CEO for its defense and systems division, told reporters Monday. For example, “we did a seven-way exercise, and we're like, ‘no, we need a tack time of 100 seconds for each [screw], not an hour and a half,” for 70 screws.

In addition to changing techniques and design practices, Gowder said the company is looking for suppliers that are “used to the high volumes we need.”

For the F404/F414 engine, which is found in the F/A-18, “we're trying to move to a different supply base that has different commercial off-the-shelf type standards that have operated at this volume,” she said. “And when we tell them we want to go from one engine a month to 20 engines a month in like six months or a year, that doesn't phase them because they're used to handling the volumes. Only when you get to like 100 engines a month do they start to say, ‘hey, I might need some some investments or capacity to meet that.’”

GE is also conducting “producibility reviews” as it brings on suppliers, she said.

“So we think we designed it correctly. We think we've chosen the right types of suppliers that have the capacity and processes we need, but as they actually get the drawing and figure out how they're going to make it for the first time, we're there with them [to review] other changes before we lock in that final design.”

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Next up: Hypersonic testing. The Pentagon’s innovation arm tapped GE Aerospace to develop a hypersonic test bed as part of the Hypersonic and High-Cadence Airborne Testing Capabilities, or HyCAT, program. The award follows one for a prototype in 2023 . The first flight is targeted for 2028.

“This is a significant milestone for our hypersonics team,” where “we're the prime, but we're also providing a dual-mode ramjet ,” which can make the vehicle go faster and further, while “working with a number of other platforms to provide an all-up round to support this high-cadence hypersonic testing capability,” Steve “Doogie” Russell, VP and general manager of GE’s Edison Works, told reporters.

But the company isn’t interested in developing a weapons system, Russell said.

“This is a case where we do have the ability to be the full integrator for this test bed project, but we're really focused on being a propulsion solution provider across this spectrum of activity. Same thing with the low-cost small-engine side of things.”

The engine-maker is working with several other companies, but declined to name them or discuss product ranges.

GE Aerospace also plans to use the solution to test other payloads, including engine upgrades, said Dean Modroukas, general manager of hypersonics.

“The best way to assess hypersonic systems is to make sure that you've got plenty of time in an operating mode that's relevant for things like thermal equilibrium, maneuverability,” Modroukas said. “HyCat is the second step of what we're doing to develop a test bed and test capability that allows us to bring our engines into flight. So we're always looking forward in terms of ways that we can learn quickly and through testing both on the ground, but end of the day, in a relevant environment, is [that] you want to be in the air.”

One more engine-related thing: The Navy certified Rolls-Royce’s mtu series 4000 and 2000 marine engines to power autonomous surface vessels.

NEXT STORY: Defense Business Brief: A day at DIBX 2026 in Philadelphia

国防商业简报

马萨诸塞州林恩——在通用电气航空航天公司位于此地的工厂里，机器人罗西和她的自动化伙伴托马斯是该公司自动化生产线上的明星。这两台高耸的机器身披黄色外衣，让人联想起变形金刚大黄蜂脱臼的手臂。它们协同运作，无缝衔接，收集工具、加工零件，并组装T700发动机的组件。T700发动机用于波音公司的阿帕奇直升机和西科斯基公司的黑鹰直升机，未来还将用于美国海军陆战队CH-53-K“种马王”直升机的T408发动机。

这是该工厂多年 1 亿美元投资计划的一部分，该计划高度专注于从机器到工作流程的升级改造，以生产更多发动机并更快地交付。

“这曾经是我们业务的瓶颈，”负责林恩工厂制造工程并领导一个团队整合机器人和自动化技术的丹·马丁谈到生产旋转部件（例如冷却板）的业务时说道，“我们这里存在质量问题，也存在产能问题。现在机器人系统上线了，这些生产线不再受制于产能了。”

一旦军方开始大量订购协同作战飞机或战斗机的机器人僚机，这种快速推进的需求将至关重要。

通用电气航空航天公司国防与系统部门总裁兼首席执行官艾米·高德周一告诉记者：“我们从一开始就着手设计，以满足合适的生产需求。”她表示，首先从小型发动机入手。例如，“我们进行了一项七方面分析，结果发现，‘不行，70颗螺丝的加工时间需要控制在100秒以内，而不是一个半小时。’”

除了改变技术和设计方法外，高德表示，公司还在寻找“习惯于我们所需大批量生产的供应商”。

她表示，对于F/A-18战斗机所使用的F404/F414发动机，“我们正尝试转向不同的供应商，这些供应商拥有不同的商用现货标准，并且已经能够以这样的产量运营。当我们告诉他们，我们希望在六个月或一年内将月产量从一台提高到二十台时，他们并不觉得有什么问题，因为他们已经习惯了这样的产量。只有当产量达到每月一百台左右时，他们才会开始说，‘嘿，我可能需要一些投资或产能来满足这个需求。’”

她表示，通用电气在引入供应商时也会进行“可生产性审查”。

“所以我们认为我们的设计是正确的。我们认为我们选择了合适的供应商，他们拥有我们需要的产能和流程，但是当他们真正拿到图纸并第一次弄清楚如何生产时，我们会和他们一起审查其他变更，然后再确定最终设计。”

欢迎来到《国防商业简报》，在这里我们将深入探讨五角大楼的采购内容、采购供应商以及采购原因。欢迎将您的建议、反馈和歌曲推荐发送至 lwilliams@defenseone.com。点击此处查看《国防商业简报》往期内容，并邀请您的朋友订阅！

接下来是高超音速测试。五角大楼创新部门已委托通用电气航空航天公司开发高超音速测试平台，作为高超音速和高频次机载测试能力（HyCAT）项目的一部分。此前，该项目已于2023年授予通用电气航空航天公司原型机项目。首次飞行计划于2028年进行。

“这对我们的高超音速团队来说是一个重要的里程碑，”通用电气爱迪生工厂副总裁兼总经理史蒂夫·“杜吉”·罗素告诉记者，“我们是主承包商，但我们也提供了一种双模冲压发动机，”这可以使飞行器飞得更快更远，同时“我们正在与其他一些平台合作，以提供全面的支持，从而支持这种高频率的高超音速测试能力。”

但拉塞尔表示，该公司对开发武器系统不感兴趣。

“在这个测试平台项目中，我们确实有能力成为完整的集成商，但我们真正专注于成为该领域推进解决方案的供应商。低成本小型发动机方面也是如此。”

这家发动机制造商正在与其他几家公司合作，但拒绝透露这些公司的名称或讨论产品范围。

GE航空航天公司高超音速业务总经理迪恩·莫德鲁卡斯表示，该公司还计划利用该解决方案测试其他有效载荷，包括发动机升级。

“评估高超音速系统的最佳方法是确保在与热平衡、机动性等相关的运行模式下有充足的时间进行测试，”莫德鲁卡斯说。“HyCat是我们开发测试平台和测试能力的第二步，这将使我们能够将发动机投入飞行测试。因此，我们一直在寻找能够快速学习的方法，并通过地面测试不断改进，但最终，在相关的环境中，我们还是希望进行空中测试。”

还有一件与发动机有关的事情：海军已认证劳斯莱斯的 MTU 4000 和 2000 系列船用发动机可为自主水面舰艇提供动力。

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