The Air Force’s top officer isn’t discouraged that a once hearty field of potential bidders for the Air Force’s next generation trainer has dwindled to two teams.
Actually, service Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein is upbeat.
“I think we could have predicted this,” Goldfein told reporters Tuesday at a Defense Writers Group (DWG) breakfast in Washington.
Goldfein said the Air Force tried new acquisition approaches for the program to procure it’s next trainer, called T-X. He said the service opened up a robust and inclusive dialogue with industry, complete with a number of draft requests for proposals (RFP). Goldfein said the back and forth with industry over the draft RFPs allowed the Air Force to get feedback from interested companies on what they could provide and what companies thought was a reasonable capability.
As a result of this dialogue, Goldfein believes the remaining teams are better informed. Lockheed Martin [LMT]-Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Boeing [BA] are considered front runners while little-known Stavatti Aerospace announced last week it would bid with its Javelin aircraft. Two other teams, Raytheon [RTN]-Leonardo and Northrop Grumman [NOC]-BAE Systems–L-3 Technologies [LLL], recently dropped out about a week apart.
“Longer dialogue up front ends up with far more informed and better-written RFP and business decisions along the way,” Goldfein said.
The Air Force also tried another new acquisition approach for T-X in which it added extra credit to potential bidders who could provide capability beyond the minimum required threshold at a better price. Goldfein said this approach of giving extra credit for capabilities beyond the minimum could serve as a template for future Air Force acquisition programs.
Lexington Institute COO Loren Thompson said an example of this sort of capability, not directly tied to T-X, would be being able to pull more Gs in a tight turn. The Air Force did not return a request for comment Tuesday by press time.
Thompson said the Air Force has two options in selecting a new trainer: it can buy a lower-cost plane that is an exact match for its specifications; or it can pay a little more for a plane that exceeds its baseline requirements. The service is willing to pay a little more under certain circumstances, he said, but that depends on how much money is available.
These new approaches might have ruffled some feathers among prospective bidders, but that is fine by Goldfein.
“If you really liked the old way of doing business, you probably didn’t like this new way of doing business because it took longer,” Goldfein said.
Godlfein also reminded reporters that two bidders is still a competition.
“I’d be concerned right now if I had one competitor,” he said. “We got a competition and it’s a really informed competition.”
Thompson said Tuesday the T-X program, so far, has been run very well because there was no ambiguity as to what the Air Force wants or what potential contractors can provide. He said there have been some major missteps in past competitions, such as the first round of what became the KC-46 aerial refueling tanker, because customer requirements were not clearly defined.
Thompson said Boeing seems to be very positive on this new acquisition approach that Goldfein mentioned because it has allowed the company to develop a clean sheet aircraft that is an exact match for the Air Force’s requirements. He said Boeing calls an aircraft developed for specific requirements as a “purpose-built aircraft.”
The solicitation released for T-X is a $16.3 billion development RFP that includes all aspects of the system, including engineering and manufacturing development, low rate initial production (LRIP), full rate production (FRP) and sustainment transition support.
The solicitation lays the groundwork for delivery of the first five test aircraft. There are also contract options for the first two LRIP lots and FRP of lots three through 11 for a total of 350 aircraft. Provisions are also included for ground support systems such as training systems, mission planning and processing systems, support equipment and spares.
The T-X program will replace the Air Force’s T-38 pilot training aircraft (Defense Daily, Dec. 30).