USAF T-X

Jeg tar med denne gamle nyheten siden den har fine bilder av T-38 og SAAB 105

 

Fighter rivals join forces for T-X

by Craig Hoyle on 12 December, 2013 in Defense With an 'S'

So it’s official. After persistent rumours which first surfaced earlier this year, Boeing and Saab have confirmed teaming up to pursue the US Air Force’s elusive T-X trainer requirement. But no, this isn’t some half-hearted rehash of the Swedish manufacturer’s Gripen, but an all-new, clean-sheet design.

Why would they do this, you might ask? Boeing has long been suspected of trying to create a new platform to eventually replace the USAF’s Northrop T-38 Talons (USAF image above), having ended its previous relationship with the UK’s BAE Systems, through which they delivered about 200 T-45 Goshawks to the US Navy. It also at one point considered working with Alenia Aermacchi on a version of the latter’s M-346, but went cold on that idea. Adapting an existing trainer clearly isn’t a winning strategy, to its mind.

Having pitched its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet against Saab’s Gripen in a number of contests, including an ongoing battle in Brazil, Boeing knows that the Swedish firm is able to develop a good product at a cost that some others just can’t match, and do so with enviable in-service support costs. Working together with Saab North America, it hopes to be able to pitch something for the T-X fleet that can offer an advantage over expected rivals the BAE/Northrop Grumman Hawk T2, Korea Aerospace Industries/Lockheed Martin T-50 and Alenia North America/General Dynamics T-100 (a variant of the M-346).

For Saab, this pact is a genuine coup – let’s remember that its entire aeronautics branch totals only about 4,000 staff. Get it right for T-X, and we could perhaps expect the Swedish air force to come knocking too, as its current 72 Saab 105 jets (company-sourced image below) are going to need replacing about the same time. As covered elsewhere on Flightglobal, it might even help in getting more Saab-produced equipment – such as the Skeldar unmanned helicopter, and surveillance-roled Saab 340 – into the hands of US operators.

What remains to be seen though is whether a Boeing/Saab product – and concepts already exist – can be honed fast enough once the USAF gets around to fully defining its requirements and issuing a request for proposals for T-X: maybe more than two years from now. But for this team perhaps more than any of the other likely bidders, extra time is likely to be a good thing.

We can’t wait for the T-X programme to get going, as it’s going to be an epic fight. The M-346 has so far been sold to Italy, Israel and Singapore, the T-50 to South Korea, Indonesia and – just today – Iraq, while new-generation Hawks are flying with the UK and on order for Oman and Saudi Arabia. Would you buy one of those now, or wait for a Boeing/Saab rival to take form?