combat aircraft

Boeing has secured a trio of

impressive competition victories

in recent months, crowned by

the huge USAF T-X trainer win.

REPORT Jamie Hunter

its formal requirements list in March

2015. This was the last major step before
      contractors were invited to respond
      to the RFP.
      The three parties to do so were
      Lockheed Martin with its T-50A,
      Leonardo DRS with the T-100 (based
      on the M-346 Master) and Boeing with
      its all-new design. Northrop Grumman
      was the only other party seriously in the
      running, but it abandoned its clean-
      sheet aircraft and pulled out altogether
      without submitting a bid.
      In the background, Boeing was
      under way with its ofering, which was
      unveiled on September 13, 2016. At
      the time of the roll-out, Boeing and
      Saab had already built the two aircraft
      — T1 and T2, registrations N381TX
      and N382TX respectively — which
      Boeing said were ‘not prototypes,

http://www.combataircraft.net // December 2018 41