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Boeing released this new rendering of its T-7A offering for the Navy’s T-45 replacement in April.
The coming sea change in the way the U.S. Navy trains its future aviators—aimed at accelerating the upcoming acquisition program—has prospective trainer aircraft contractors both excited and relieved.
The Navy released its latest request for information (RFI) for the Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS), the program that will replace its McDonnell Douglas T-45 Goshawk trainer, on March 31. In the solicitation, the service announced that it will no longer require the trainer to land on an aircraft carrier or conduct unflared landings at a carrier-representative airstrip.
- Reduced specifications clear the way for existing aircraft
- Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Textron are vying to replace the T-45
Manufacturers are no longer expected to engineer an aircraft with landing gear and structures strong enough to withstand repeated hard landings, a step that representatives from each company tell Aviation Week makes them better prepared for a program they expect will move with haste.
“We’re really excited about the RFI because it gives us an indication that the Navy’s now getting serious about recapitalizing the T-45,” says Brian Schubert, executive director of T-7A business development at Boeing. “To us, this is a signal they’re moving forward with this. They’ve come to some decision points, obviously, about capabilities that they need, and the field carrier landing practice element of that . . . allows us to move forward with the capability that we have.”
The RFI seemingly puts an end to the debate surrounding Navy training. It has been a mainstay for aviators to practice landing on a carrier; however, with the onset of precision landing assistance on modern fighters, it has become less important. Naval Air Training Command has been piloting an effort to reduce carrier landing practice for trainees to shorten the training pipeline, and officials have touted the results as a major success.
Previous UJTS solicitations have called for aircraft that could conduct field carrier landing practice and withstand thousands of unflared landings throughout their service life. None of the announced competitors—Boeing’s T-7A, Lockheed Martin-Korean Aerospace Industries’ TF-50N or Textron-Leonardo’s M-346N—had been designed to withstand such rigorous operations.
“It is obviously less engineering,” says Jim Mlynarski, Lockheed Martin’s capture manager for the TF-50. “We know that the Navy has been considering this for a while, so this wasn’t really a surprise to us. We understand why they pulled it out, and they’re comfortable with that. We want to support them. We want to give them the best product they can to train to that, even though they’re not slamming it onto the ground.”
The TF-50N is planned to be a naval training variant of the Korean Aerospace Industries T-50. More than 250 of the type have been delivered and have exceeded 330,000 flight hours. Mlynarski says the existing hot production line will help the team move quickly, although the line is in South Korea. Lockheed Martin had planned its T-50-based offering for the U.S. Air Force’s training program to be built in Greenville, South Carolina. Mlynarski would not identify a potential location but said the company is thinking it through.
Following the solicitation, Lockheed is reviewing the new potential requirements and planning changes that might be necessary to be competitive and meet the threshold needs.
Textron is entering the competition as the prime with the Leonardo M-346 trainer used by 14 air forces around the world. Steve Helmer, Textron’s flight-test and demonstration pilot, says that would enable the Navy to field an existing product that has gone through development and upgrades—akin to buying a car several years after the model was first introduced.
“One of the early advantages we have as a collaborative offering to the Navy is speed to fleet, because we have a hot production line and because we have an airplane that is operational and has all the industry experience built in and has been continuously improved throughout its life,” Helmer says.
The M-346 is built in Italy, and if the team were to win initial engineering and manufacturing development, the aircraft would be produced there before moving to a U.S. production location that “wouldn’t be a surprise,” he says. Textron is based in Wichita.
Not requiring field carrier landing practice simplifies engineering for the team, and Textron plans to respond with a built-in precision landing mode. Additionally, the M-346 comes with a series of different simulators and live-virtual constructive systems that enable ground systems to connect with flying aircraft, which would allow student pilots to focus on carrier landing fundamentals before flying operational aircraft.
Boeing is reviewing the RFI and preparing its offering. But the company’s biggest priority is the U.S. Air Force’s delayed T-7A program, for which 351 aircraft are expected.
Schubert says Boeing’s initial read of the solicitation is that the T-7 aircraft and its associated simulators and other ground training systems are well-suited.
“How the Air Force and how the Navy fly is going to be different, and we want to make sure that our solution meets those requirements for both customers,” he says.
The Navy aims to release a formal request for proposals this year, award the contract in 2027 and declare the first aircraft operational in 2030.
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