USAF Releases T-X Requirements.

The US Air Force (USAF) on 20 March released requirements for its Northrop T-38C Talon combat aircraft trainer replacement programme, known as T-X.

USAF Releases T-X Requirements.

USAF Secretary Deborah Lee James, the service's senior civilian official, has emphasised open discussions with potential T-X manufacturers to keep the effort affordable. "The industry dialogue will help guide air force evaluation of threshold and objective requirements, producing better informed cost-capability decisions," James said in a 20 March press statement accompanying the requirements release.

Brigadier General Dawn Dunlop, the director of plans, programmes, and requirements at USAF Air Education and Training Command (AETC), noted that the document was released "approximately 10 months earlier than under the normal acquisition process and is part of an ongoing effort for more deliberate and open engagement with industry".

According to the USAF's fiscal year 2016 (FY 2016) budget request, a contract is to be awarded about a year after the release of a request for proposals (RfP). The FY 2016 budget contains a request for USD11.4 million for T-X research and development (R&D).

The funding request is planned to escalate over the Future Year Defense Program (FYDP) with USD12.2 million in FY 2017, USD107.2 million in FY 2018, USD262.8 million in FY 2019, and USD 275.9 million in FY 2020. The service is expected to buy 300-400 of the aircraft.

Brig Gen Dunlop noted that the T-38 is obsolete in many respects, which forces the USAF to use combat aircraft for training tasks that could be completed in less costly aircraft. For example, the T-38's sensor suite is deficient.

"Cockpit and sensor management are fundamentally different today in 4th- and 5th-generation aircraft than it was when the T-38 was built in 1961," the general said in a press statement. "While the T-38 has been upgraded to a glass cockpit, the inability to upgrade the T-38's performance and simulated sensor capability presents a growing challenge each year to effectively teach the critical skills essential to today's military pilots."

Further, the fleet's age and condition has made sustainment difficult. According to Brig Gen Dunlop, the T-38s assigned to AETC, for example, "have not met the command's requirement for 75% availability since 2011, meaning many are not mission capable and unavailable for training".

There are already five teams in the running for the contract. Northrop Grumman recently announced that it is developing a new aircraft design for the T-X competition due to what it saw as an evolution in the USAF's requirements. A Boeing-Saab team is also planning to offer a fresh design for the T-X.

Other announced competitors include: Textron AirLand, which is planning to enter with a variant of its new Scorpion jet; Lockheed Martin and Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) with KAI's T-50; and General Dynamics and Alenia Aermacchi with the T-100, based on Alenia's M-346 Master.