The Air Force is delaying production of the T-X advanced jet trainer, its acquisition executive said yesterday.
Air Force Service Acquisition Executive David Van Buren told an audience at an Aviation Week conference in Arlington, Va., that the decision was a function of “need over time.”
“T-X has been pushed further to the right, a function of need over time and the fact that we can’t embark on that as soon as perhaps some people would like,” Van Buren said.
A congressional source wondered how the Air Force could slow down development when there wasn’t much to begin with, adding that the service’s goal was to get the T-X trainers in fleet by 2017.
Another source said this program isn’t dead, “just delayed one year.”
The T-X program is designed to replace Northrop Grumman’s [NOC] aging T-38. Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems and L-3 Link Simulation and Training [LLL] are partnering to offer the Hawk Advanced Jet Training System (AJTS). The team will manufacture and assemble the Hawk AJTS in the United States (Defense Daily, Jan. 13).
Alenia North America, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, plans to bid with its T-100, which is the American version of the M-346. Lockheed Martin [LMT]/Korea Aerospace and Boeing [BA] also plan to compete for the T-X program (Defense Daily, Jan. 13).