T-X partnership hits 11th hour snag

a reply to: Barnalby

The M346 is becoming one of the more popular trainers out there. It's still only in a small market but pretty much every customer that bought them has ended up buying more after the first batch arrived.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I think it's a great little aircraft, and a fantastically complete platform, but I can also understand why it might not have been able to shake that "not invented here" stigma with the USAF.

It's all about cost. Raytheon wanted to price the aircraft up to 30% below what Leonardo was willing to go. Part of that is the Italian pricing. They were building 70% of the aircraft in Italy which has a higher labor rate among other higher costs. The flyaway cost for an M-346 is $25M, while Raytheon wanted the $15-18M range. According to reports the Boeing entry is priced extremely competitively.

www.defensenews.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

There are reports Northrop is growing cold on the T-X. Not sure how seriously to take them, Zaph.

What do you think? NorthGrum reading the weather and not liking the forecast?

a reply to: anzha

Honestly, since they unveiled it, I've thought it was more for the expert market than T-X.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Could Boeing be taking a loss on purpose just to keep the lights on in St Louis until the F-XX/
F/A-XX RFP's drop?

Think theres enough projects around to keep everybody happy at moment.

a reply to: anzha

When I look at thier entry I don't see an IFR port or an afterburner. Both of which the Boeing and LM bird have and in the case of an IFR port, is in the RFP IIRC.

a reply to: Barnalby

That's the other thing I was convinced of. This is Boeing's program to lose. The Pentagon needs the fighter line to stay viable until then, and even with the new orders from the ME, it's questionable if they can.

www.flightglobal.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah, I'm a bit of a Northrop fanboy but I'd honestly love to see Boeing win it at this point, if only because it helps keep the lights on at SAAB as well.

As to the Northrop Model 400, they've got such a built-in market with all the nations still using F-5's that they could easily sell hundreds of airframes to the various F-5 operators out there who really just need a cheap, single-engine multirole aircraft and are already familiar with dealing with Northrop.

It'll be interesting for sure to see the US potentially having TWO export capable light supersonic multirole fighters. We haven't really had that since the 60's.

a reply to: Barnalby

It seems like it would be a great fit for the light strike role. Like Sam said, there are a few things missing for the T-X. It's pretty funny because we were discussing them being lukewarm on it a few weeks ago.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Also, watching the videos of the SAABoeing and the Model 400 side by side, the model 400 looks like a significantly larger aircraft, possibly larger than the KAI and Leonardo airframes as well. The Boeing is positively tiny by comparison, and in flight it gives off major BD-10 vibes.

As for light strike, it will be very, very interesting if the Model 400 ends up having any of the Scaled Ares' DNA in it. Very interesting indeed.

Interesting analysis of why they're lukewarm about the program. It basically boils down to the fact that they didn't need the T-X, like they did the B-21, so they may be considering dropping out to protect their bottom line.

www.flightglobal.com...