Jane Edwards
Pratt & Whitney and the Netherlands’ defense ministry have signed a contract to establish a depot that will host work to maintain, repair, overhaul and upgrade engines used in F-35 fighter jets.
The United Technologies Corp. subsidiary announced the contract Monday, nine months after the U.S. Defense Department selected the Netherlands in December 2014 as an F135 engine maintenance site in Europe.
Pratt & Whitney and the Dutch government aim to have the MRO&U hub established by 2019.
Pratt & Whitney said follow-on contracts with the F-35 Joint Program Office will cover assembly, cleaning, testing, inspection and disassembly work on F135 engines at the Netherlands-based Logistics Center Woensdrecht.
Logistics Center Woensdrecht performs program management, logistics and maintenance work on F-16 fighter jets, Apache and Chinook helicopters, PC-7 training planes and aircraft communication systems for the Dutch armed forces.
