U.S. Navy Pushes Back T-45 Replacement Timeline

The U.S. Navy is pushing back the potential contract award for a new trainer by two years as it still tries to determine whether the T-45 Goshawk replacement would need to practice carrier landings.

The service released another request for information (RFI) for the Undergraduate Jet Training System on June 26, saying the service is now looking at a potential solicitation in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 and a contract award in the second quarter of fiscal 2028. A previous RFI said a contract award was targeted for 2026.

In the RFI, the Navy says it is “still carefully considering whether the UJTS air vehicle will need to conduct Field Carrier Landing Practice to touchdown,” with the program office planning to release more information when the Naval Aviation Enterprise makes the decision. No timeline was provided. While the Navy appears to have decided the T-45 replacement would not need to land on aircraft carriers at sea, the solicitation shows leaders are still debating on the need to land on airfields set up to represent a carrier deck.

With the proliferation of software control systems to assist pilots landing on carriers, the Navy has reduced its requirement for student pilots to train for it.

The RFI includes a list of attributes that the Navy wants for the aircraft, including the capability for 0.9 Mach, 20 deg. sustained angle of attack, 6g maximum sustained turn rate and a 41,000-ft. ceiling. The aircraft needs a minimum fatigue life of 10,000 hr. and 35,000 landings.

It also needs to be capable of six to 10 unflared landings per training event, and capable of flared landings for the aircraft’s service life.

The focus on long-term, sustained unflared landings is the driver of cost and schedule uncertainty for the program. The three publicly disclosed contestants for the program are not designed to take that type of beating, and would require re-engineering to the point where some industry officials have said UJTS would become an engineering and manufacturing development program.

Boeing has put forward a Navy version of its T-7A Red Hawk trainer, which it is developing for the U.S. Air Force’s T-38 replacement. Lockheed Martin is offering the TF-50N, a new version of its T-50 that it has partnered on with Korea Aerospace Industries. Current T-50 operators include Indonesia, Iraq, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea and Thailand.

Textron and Leonardo have teamed up to offer the M-346N, a modified version of the M-346 that is operating in several countries including Italy, Poland and Singapore.

Another possible competitor could be Sierra Nevada Corp., which has teased a U.S. Navy trainer-painted rendering of its Freedom. SNC teamed with Turkish Aerospace Industries to offer the aircraft, a modified version of the TAI Hurjet.

The Navy’s fiscal 2025 budget request hinted at a potential program delay, with no long-term funding outlined. Previous solicitations have called for 145 jets to be delivered over a seven-year period. 

In the meantime, the Navy has faced problems with its T-45 fleet, including multiple safety pauses and engine problems that have limited the trainer’s mission capability.