L-3 Link Simulation and Training [LLL] has signed an exclusive 10-year agreement with BAE Systems to provide ground-based training and simulation in the company’s pursuit of the Air Force’s T-X program, a BAE official said recently.
The T-X program is an effort to replace Northrop Grumman’s [NOC] T-38 Talon. BAE is offering the Hawk Advanced Jet Training System (AJTS), which is an advanced jet trainer delivering fifth generation cockpit resource and sensor management capabilities to pilots. Northrop Grumman is also a partner with BAE and now L-3 Link, providing the manufacture and assembly of the Hawk AJTS in the United States.
Alenia North America, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, plans to bid with its T-100, which is the American version of the M-346, according to an industry official who also said Lockheed Martin [LMT]/Korea Aerospace and Boeing [BA] plan to compete.
During a conference call with reporters, Leonard Genna, L-3 Link president, said the purpose of the Hawk training system is simple: Teaching student pilots the advanced information systems with ground-based, as opposed to in-air, training.
“It’s about sensor management,” Genna said. “How to manage the complex weapon systems in a fifth-generation fighter.”
Those fifth-generation fighters include the F-35 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor, both developed by Lockheed Martin.
Three key components of the Hawk AJTS are: An Enterprise Learning Architecture that facilitates distributed operations between training system components, a Ground-Based Training System that works in a blended live/virtual environment and an aircraft that deliver training for a range of end-user requirements.
Genna said L-3 is involved in the ground-based component and that this is “one of the biggest training programs” out for the company.
“If you follow our business, we only offer the opportunity to provide pieces and parts of a training program,” Genna said. “This opportunity we are providing a complete training system.”
Genna also said that most of L-3’s fighter programs are based in Arlington, Va., and he said securing this program could cause the company’s local operations to grow.
L-3 will manufacture the Hawk AJTS in the United States, BAE head of the Hawk AJTS project, Robert Wood, said during the conference call. But the exact location has not been reached.
“(We’re) still evaluating locations,” Wood said. “We will manufacture in the U.S. We hope to soon be able to announce where we will build the Hawk and the training system for the T-X.”
Wood also mentioned there has been no indication of when a request for proposals would be issued.
“Right now, the customer, the Air Force, is waiting for the budget for 2013,” said Wood, who estimated the cost of the program as being “around $10 billion.”