Scott Nicholas
Gen. David Goldfein, chief of staff at the U.S. Air Force, has said that he expected a shakeout in the military service’s $16 billion T-X trainer competition launched in late 2016 given the branch’s strategy to procure a new jet fighter training system, National Defense Magazine reported Tuesday.
According to the story by Yasmin Tadjdeh, Goldfein told reporters during a meeting in Washington the Air Force initiated an “inclusive dialogue” with interested parties and drafted a number of requests for proposals as part of the acquisition process.
“I’m not at all surprised that some of them along the way came and said, ‘You know what, now that we really have a better sense of what the customer is looking for and what the other competitors have, we’re going to make a business decision not to jump into this race,” said Goldfein, according to the report.
Yasmin wrote a Northrop Grumman–BAE Systems partnership and a Raytheon–Leonardo alliance have withdrawn from the competition to replace the Air Force’s T-38 aircraft.
The Boeing–Saab, Sierra Nevada–Turkish Aerospace Industries and Lockheed Martin– Korea Aerospace Industries teams still aim to pursue the T-X program, Tadjdeh reported.
Stavatti Aerospace said last week it will offer the Javelin military jet trainer and very light fighter aircraft platform to the competition.
