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COMPETITIVE ASSESSMENT OF TECHNOLOGY 126 SNECMA Engine Technologies and Programs SNECMA is the French manufacturer of large gas turbine aircraft engines and is 85 percent owned by the French government. The company designed, developed, and currently produces the ATAR and M53 engines powering the French Armed Forces' Mirage and Super Etendard fighter bombers. Additionally, SNECMA has a 50 percent codevelopment and production share of the CFM56 commercial transport engine family and a 10 percent codevelopment share of the CF6-80C. SNECMA's execution of its share of these programs, and earlier programs with Rolls Royce on the Olympus engine, has been up to the state-of- the-art standards of U.S. manufacturers. SNECMA does not have a complete technology base now, particularly in high-stage-loading compressors, high-space-rate combustors, and high- temperature turbines. SNECMA and French government labs are developing such technology through R&D work on eutectic alloys and structural composites. In general, many of the technologies incorporated in commercial transport engines are also applicable to military fighter engines; typically, there is a high degree of synergistic technology transfer between military and commercial engine designs. Thus, examination of SNECMA's fighter engine technology compared with that of Pratt and Whitney and General Electric provides some further assessment of SNECMA's technological competitiveness. Figures 5-10 and 5-11 compare two significant measures of overall technology level for fighter engines: thrust-to-weight ratio and turbine temperature. The data would indicate performance levels for the M88 below those of the latest U.S. fighter engines (F100, F404, and F110) and also lagging some 8 to 10 years in development, if needed funds are found for the program. It should be noted that the SNECMA development is proceeding without a specific application objective to pace it. MTU Engine Technologies and Programs The West German firm Motoren-und-Turbinen-Union GmbH (MTU) also participates as a codevelopment and coproduction partner in several large commercial transport and military engine programs. Its technical execution of the engine modules, for which it has had codevelopment responsibility, has been comparable to state-of-the-art standards of U.S. manufacturers. The German government has concluded that the German market is not big enough to justify an independent capability in large commercial transport engines. The government has concluded that further investment for a small turboshaft develop
