General Electric (NYSE: GE) is providing new engines for C-5 planes under the U.S. Air Force’s $7.4 billion program that aims to upgrade the aircraft’s capabilities, DoD Buzz reported Thursday.
Kris Osborn writes the Air Force has moved to replace some of the A, B and C models of the C-5 aircraft with 52 new C-5M Super Galaxy planes, each spanning 65 feet with a 222-foot wingspan and designed to contain a 840, 000-pound load.
Air Force Spokesman Ed Gulick told DoD Buzz the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining program aims to upgrade the C-5’s fuel efficiency, range, payload capability and air traffic management by 2017.
Gulick also told the publication GE has supplied F138-GE-100 engines to replace the TF39 engines of 11 C-5 planes thus far.
The modification program builds on the previously executed Avionics Modernization Program aimed at updating the electronics and avionics capabilities of the C-5, according to the report.
Gulick told DoD Buzz the modernization effort involves two phases, first the AMP upgrades and later the RERP.
