T-X Requirements Under Review

The newly appointed head of US Air Force Air Education and Training Command (AETC) acknowledged last week that funds for a replacement trainer won’t be coming in the near future, but said the T-X program remains a priority for his staff.
Timetable confirms there won’t be much movement on the T-X program in the next two years, despite heavy interest from industry. In 2014 and 2015 there are no plans for T-X.
Three competitors have offered off-the-shelf designs: the Hawk Advanced Jet Training System, a joint program of BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, L-3 Link Simulation & Training and Rolls-Royce; Lockheed Martin’s offering of the Korean Aerospace Industries T-50; and the T-100, a collaboration between General Dynamics and Italy’s Alenia Aermacchi.
This month, Boeing and Saab announced they would be teaming on a clean-sheet design for the program.
The Air Force is eyeing an initial operating capability date of 2023 or 2024 for the winner of the T-X competition, which will replace the service’s T-38 trainers with 350 new models.
There could be life for the T-38 after T-X, perhaps as an opposition plane during training missions.
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