Northrop Grumman [NOC] and BAE Systems
decided to switch roles in their partnership for the Air Force’s T-X trainer program, with Northrop Grumman now serving as prime contractor.
Northrop Grumman spokesman Bryce McDevitt said Monday that other than switching prime and subcontractor roles, nothing else has changed in their arrangement.
“The decision to realign was reached mutually by all team members to better leverage Northrop Grumman’s domestic development and production capabilities,” McDevitt said in a statement.
L-3 Communications [LLL] and Rolls-Royce are still on the Northrop Grumman-BAE Systems team, with Rolls-Royce providing its Adour Mk 951 engine with BAE’s Advanced Jet Training System (AJTS). T-X, estimated to be worth $30 billion, is to replace the Air Force’s T-38 trainer aircraft.
The field of potential bidders for T-X is crowded. Boeing [BA] spokesman Todd Blecher said Monday the company is teaming with Saab and offering a clean sheet approach for T-X. A team of General Dynamics [GD] and Finmeccanica’s Alenia Aermacchi and an entry from Lockheed Martin [LMT] and Korea Aerospace are also vying for T-X. General Dynamics and Alenia Aermacchi said they’d offer a variant based on Alenia’s T-100, a market variant of its M-346 military aircraft trainer. Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace were to bid Lockheed Martin’s T-50.
The Air Force has a goal of getting its long-delayed T-X into its fleet by 2023 or 2024, 10 years later than its original goal (Defense Daily; June 18, 2013).