A Boeing rendering of a next-gen fighter. (Boeing photo)
WASHINGTON — The Air Force now expects prototyping for highly advanced fighter jet engines will not be complete until 2031, delaying the marquee propulsion effort again by more than a year.
In a statement to Breaking Defense, an Air Force spokesperson said the new timeline for the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program “reflects expanded test and evaluation of NGAP prototypes and allows investigation of test findings.”
The 2031 completion date is disclosed in the service’s fiscal 2027 budget documents, and follows roughly two years of delays revealed last year. Collectively, NGAP is now facing a three-year delay compared to earlier projections.
Both GE Aerospace and RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney are competing under the NGAP program, where the two firms are expected to fabricate full-up engine prototypes. Earlier this month, the two firms said they cleared a milestone known as assembly readiness review for their respective NGAP offerings dubbed the XA102 for GE and the XA103 for Pratt.
