Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), together with its U.S. Air Force partner at the F119 Heavy Maintenance Center (HMC) at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., celebrated another significant milestone in the F119 program – the completion of the first depot overhaul for the lead-the-fleet “Compass Vector” engine which powers the F-22 Raptor.

The F119 HMC is an award-winning overhaul facility dedicated to the maintenance of F119-PW-100 engines for the fifth generation Raptor. As a center of excellence for depot-level support, Pratt & Whitney partners with the Air Force to increase efficiency and to provide best value and affordable readiness to the warfighter. Pratt & Whitney manages the engine and module repair, technical support and overhaul processes, while Tinker personnel perform overhaul and repair activities, including cleaning and inspection services.

Each F119-PW-100 engine is scheduled for depot induction for major inspection and overhaul maintenance at the HMC facility. The HMC has been supporting unscheduled maintenance for the F119 fleet since its doors opened for business in 2004. The partnership workload increased beginning in 2010 when early production F119 engines began to be inducted into the HMC.

“Today, this partnership is showing its readiness as maintenance demands increase with the ramp-up of scheduled interval depot inductions,” said Michael Ondas, director, F119 Engine Program at Pratt & Whitney. “This partnership is delivering world-class maintenance, repair, and overhaul performance for affordable F119 sustainment.”

“We have a strong partnership on the F119 program, and we’re optimizing every aspect of the depot maintenance process,” said Brian Thompson, F119 program manager, 76th Propulsion Maintenance Group.  “We’ve taken all the necessary steps on this first lead-the-fleet engine induction and we have learned a lot from this engine. The benefit is that when the volume of engines increases, we will have prepared for every aspect of the maintenance of each engine, all the way down to the smallest bolts and piece parts.”

Pratt & Whitney press release