GE Speeding Up T901 Development Amid Budget Uncertainty

NASHVILLE, Tennessee—GE Aerospace says it has accelerated the development timeline of its T901 engine for the U.S. Army and lowered costs after the program faced uncertainty, though the service has not committed more funding for the effort in its fiscal 2027 budget request.

The T901 Improved Turbine Engine was developed to reengine the UH-60 Black Hawk and AH-64 fleets, but the Army announced last year it would not move the program into procurement. Congress stepped in with $175 million in the fiscal 2026 defense spending bill and another $63 million in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to keep the program moving.

GE and Sikorsky are on contract for flight testing on the Black Hawk, though there has been a stop-work order for AH-64 Apache integration. At the Army Aviation Association of America’s 2026 Army Aviation Warfighting Summit here, Tom Champion, executive program director for T901 at GE Aerospace, says GE met with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll after the original announcement to propose new steps to deliver the engine more quickly and lower the cost. GE says it can take 12 months out of the schedule and save $75 million to get qualified.

GE and the Army are preparing for a Milestone C production decision to move the engine into low-rate initial production. To get there, GE needs to complete additional factory engine testing and more flight testing, including with Army pilots. The company will need 12 to 18 months to get through its remaining factory engine testing, Champion says. Some of the funding from the reconciliation act has not yet been put on contract.

Mike Sousa, the executive program manager for T901 at GE Aerospace, says at the summit that the company needs “a little bit more money” to get through engineering and manufacturing development. While he would not provide a specific figure, it is a “small amount relative to what we got from Congress” last year, he says.

The Army did not include T901 research and development funding in the fiscal 2027 request, showing more uncertainty in the program. Champion says GE is having active discussions with the Army about multiple courses of action to get into production. Following the engagement with Driscoll, he says the Army has turned the tide, and GE is focused on moving quickly and executing the program.