US-based GE Aerospace and Kratos Turbine Technologies have agreed to develop a family of small turbofan engines.

The companies shared that their small and inexpensive engines are designed for cruise missiles, drones, and loitering munitions.

GE Aerospace Defense and Systems President Amy Gowder noted that the family of “small, affordable” engines will initially have a thrust of about 800 pounds, which can be increased to 3,000 pounds.

“We call it the GEK800, but it’s a scalable architecture. So it’s perfect for cruise missiles,” Amy Gowder said.

For his part, Kratos CEO Eric DeMarco reported that the engines are almost ready.

“They’re almost ready to launch, and we’ve already been talking to customers. We understand what the first platforms will be like, what the first systems will be like, and we understand the competitive environment in terms of pricing and performance,” Eric DeMarco shared.

The new engines’ design provides a service life of several hundred cycles instead of several thousand, which significantly reduces their price.

For Kratos, the agreement meets the need to partner with a major engine manufacturer to develop and launch engines into large-scale production, which GE Aerospace can help with.

DeMarco added that Kratos has experience as a trade supplier for various programs, which means that the product should be available to any customer.

The companies will launch production of the GEK engine family at a new facility, the location of which is still being discussed with the government and other authorities.

The first applications for the platform have already been identified but remain classified for now.

As a reminder, in 2020, the United States conducted a series of tests of a prototype of a low-cost cruise missile and its TDI-J85 turbojet engine, developed within the Gray Wolf program.