The legacy engine: FRCE delivers final Harrier engine to fleet

MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. – Following the delivery of the depot’s final AV-8B Harrier in September, Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE) recently completed its last F402 engine maintenance event, delivering the finished product to the fleet Oct. 28.

FRCE has supported the Harrier and its engine since 1973, beginning with its assignment of the AV-8A Harrier and F402 engine workload. The legacy Rolls Royce Pegasus F402 turbofan engine features a vectored thrust system that enables the AV-8B Harrier’s short take-off and vertical landing capability. Since 1991, FRCE has serviced 1,046 F402 engines, returning an average of 32 engines to the fleet every year.

FRCE Commanding Officer Capt. Randy Berti said the command’s F402 team’s efforts have not gone unnoticed within the Harrier community.

“I am very proud of FRC East’s long history of supporting the Harrier and its engine,” said Berti. “To consistently produce high-quality engines that have, in turn, helped extend the Harrier’s lifespan is a remarkable achievement, one that every member of the team should take pride in. Their expertise, commitment and teamwork have not only ensured the Harrier’s continued success, but also played an important role in our support of the warfighter.”

The milestone was celebrated with an informal ceremony Sept. 19 in the command’s AV-8 hangar. During the ceremony, Berti and leaders from the AV-8B Weapon Systems Program Office (PMA-257) recognized members of the depot’s Harrier and F402 teams, both past and present, for their efforts in supporting the legendary aircraft and its engine throughout the years.

Production Support Director Chris Day, who has worked with the F402 for nearly 30 years, emphasized that the team's accomplishments reflect the strong work ethic and high standards that have always been the foundation of the depot's service to the fleet.

“I can’t begin to express how proud I am of this team and their many accomplishments,” Day said. “While we’ve encountered our fair share of challenges, our success is a direct result of this team’s hard work and dedication to supporting the warfighter.

“Like many others here, I have quite the history with this engine,” he continued. “I started working on F402 engines back in March of 1993 when I joined the Marine Corps. After about seven years, I got out and began my career at FRC East as a mechanic in the F402 shop.”

One of the team’s recent successes was a marked reduction in turnaround times achieved over the past five years, said Steven Lupton, who served as the supervisor for the F402 Engine Disassembly, Assembly and Test Shop supervisor until his recent transition to the supervisor of the Fuel Controls Shop.

“Back in 2019, our average turnaround time for this engine was 484 days,” said Lupton. “This year’s average is 366 days, so we are seeing over a 100 day decrease in turnaround time. Now, part of this is because the major inspection activities, like the thousand-hour inspections, weren’t needed as the aircraft won’t need to fly for another thousand hours with the platform sundowning.

“But that’s not the only reason our turnaround times have gone down,” said Lupton. “Our team has been working on these engines for quite some time now. They are well-versed in this engine’s maintenance needs, especially because a lot of them worked on the F402 during their time in the service. They know exactly what they’re doing so it doesn’t take as long as it would for someone who, say, just started out.”

Maintaining those reduced turnaround times became increasingly challenging as the platform aged, due to supply constraints and other logistical demands, Day noted. With some parts no longer readily available from the original equipment manufacturer, the engineering teams at FRCE and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) were often called upon to help develop repair procedures that allowed the depot to continue providing warfighters with the highest-quality products.

“As the engine got older, we had to develop more repairs,” explained Day. “The engineers with the AV-8 Fleet Support Team have, time and time again, helped develop repairs and refine processes so we can ensure the product we put back into the engine was capable and suitable for continued service.”

Chris Gosnell, Fleet Support Team AV-8 Propulsion Sub-Team lead, said the cross-disciplinary F402 team at FRCE has been developing solutions to the fleet’s needs for decades. One of the team’s most memorable milestones came in 2001, he said, when the Marine Corps’ Harrier community experienced multiple groundings within a 15-month period, leaving 110 aircraft without engines. As a result, the F402 team was tasked with coming up with a functional resolution.

The team not only solved the issue, but also had enough output to produce spare engines while and assisted the fleet customer with a cost savings of more than $32 million that year. These actions earned the team the 2002 NAVAIR Commander’s Award for Supporting the Warfighter for their impact on warfighter readiness, effectiveness and satisfaction.

“A lot of people rely on FRC East to be productive and responsive to the fleet’s needs,” said Gosnell. “For us to have been able to help identify the root cause and implement the fixes is a testament to all who have worked on the program and is an accomplishment that I hold near and dear to my heart.”

The delivery of the final F402 engine to the fleet marked the end of the F402 team at FRCE, one that has supported the workload for 51 years; however, the depot will continue to support specific F402 components, Day said.

“We will still perform maintenance on a few F402 engine components, like the gearbox and fuel metering unit, because those items can by changed out at the squadron level,” said Day. “We want to make sure we can keep up the Naval Supply Systems Command demands and keep inventory healthy until 2027. And, of course, we want to make sure we can continue to support our fleet and international allies, like the Spanish and Italian navies.”

Day said the majority of the team’s members will transition to support the command’s other service platforms, including the fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II.

“Their skills translate to other areas within the depot,” said Day. “Some will go to other shops within the engine branch while others will transfer over to F-35 components. There are similarities between what we do with the F402 engine and the F-35 lift fan. As a matter of fact, like the F402, the lift fan itself is Rolls-Royce product. With those similarities, crossing some of those people over into F-35 components just made perfect sense.”

While the transition will change day-to-day activities for some of the depot’s employees, Gosnell said it’s for the best as its replacement will increase the fleet’s ability to defend the nation.

“It’s been a long time since I first walked through these doors back in January of 1989. I have been on the F402 team since the beginning of my career here, so watching the AV-8 program sundown and transition to F-35 is bittersweet for me,” Gosnell said.

“Every frontline fighter has as service life,” he continued. “There comes a point in time where the fleet needs to bring a specific capability to the fight that their current aircraft simply can’t support. Even though the AV-8 is an extremely capable aircraft, its successor programs, like the F-35, are not only newer and faster, but most importantly, more capable in today’s environment.”

FRCE is North Carolina's largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, with more than 4,000 civilian, military and contract workers. Its annual revenue exceeds $1 billion. The depot provides service to the fleet while functioning as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy; Naval Air Systems Command; and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers.