Northrop Grumman takes lead of Hawk team for T-X

Northrop Grumman has taken the prime contractor position for the BAE/L-3/Rolls Royce team that will be offering the Hawk trainer to the USAF for the T-X program. They plan to offer a US-centric Hawk 128/T2 flown by the RAF. The Air Force will buy up to 350 aircraft to replace the T-38 currently flown as pilot trainers.

Northrop Grumman is to take the lead role in a bid to offer a development of BAE Systems’ Hawk advanced jet trainer for the US Air Force’s eagerly anticipated T-X contest.

“The decision to realign was reached mutually by all team members to better leverage Northrop Grumman’s domestic development and production capabilities,” the US company said on 7 July of the agreement for it to assume “prime contractor responsibilities”.

www.flightglobal.com...

The T-X were pretty cool, but I still liked the T-800s, should of stuck with those, now the T-1000s....thats where its at.

It'd be nice to see N-G stay in the game and the Hawk is a solid and proven platform. Now if we can get the shiney seats at the Pentagon o let them build a dedicated CAS platform it'll be all good.

a reply to: Kukri

NG has some interesting platforms in development that we should get to see over the next 10 years or so, hopefully. But it's good to see all three getting into the T-X program, instead of the usual one or two we've been seeing.

It's a shame that ATG went bankrupt. I'd have liked to see what ATG's Javelin could have done.

how much conversion will there be to take the RAF Hawk and make it able to operate off a carrier - is this the same for all of the T-X bidders?

a reply to: IamSirDrinksalot

The T-X is only an Air Force program, to replace their T-38s. The Navy already flies a Hawk variant, the T-45 Goshawk.

How come the royal naval didn't invest in the goshawks, apart from having the wrong type of carriers ? Off the cuff question, didn't realise the US Navy used a version of the hawk

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: IamSirDrinksalot

The T-X is only an Air Force program, to replace their T-38s. The Navy already flies a Hawk variant, the T-45 Goshawk.

Doesn't a CAS version of the Hawk exist...I think it 's called the Hawk 200? Maybe they'll get a trainer and a CAS platform all rolled into one.