Lockheed withdraws from fa-50 crada

Like Textron with the scorpion attack jet, Lockheed was working with the USAF to certify the fa-50 they are entering unto the t-x competition. The intent was to get a leg up in the t-x competition. Abruptly, Lockheed has pulled out. The stated reason is they could not come to terms with the blue beanies for the crada.

I have to wonder though: could lockmart have decided merely to start cutting its losses since they might be expecting to lose the t-x?

www.flightglobal.com...

a reply to: anzha

I doubt it. They night have seen it as a potential protest point though. The Textron CRADA is only just now in negotiations for phase 2, so I'm not surprised they couldn't reach an agreement.

Lockheed is still going to be a big part of the FA-50 regardless of the T-X decision and a CRADA would have helped sales.

a reply to: anzha

I've smelled this for some time too. Personally, I think Boeing believes they have this in the bag. I also believe the current administration will do everything it can to make it so. It looks like LM might be stacking its cards for a protest later.

a reply to: aholic

I was surprised that Northrop won out the B-21 bid considering the rumors I had heard about it's supposed teething problems. However with Lockheed busy with F35's, Northrop with B-21's, and Boeing with TX's you could potentially be setup to keep all three big players still in the game. That along with any other programs such as existing lines and other programs in the white world and in the black seems to show a definite trend towards spreading out the programs to keep the industrial base, regardless of what the DOD claims. IMHO.

a reply to: Bfirez

Politics do play a role, unfortunately. As for the B-21, yes NG had some major problems early on but it ended up being the more cost effective solution. We saw LM withdraw their protest, due to the fact that NG did have a pretty damn good bird at the end of the day and cheaper comparatively. Much cheaper than LM's, even though they may have had the performance edge. However, that platform hasn't been buried just yet.

Boeing on the other hand needs to watch itself if it doesn't want to come under congressional review. There have been some missteps lately and LM isn't missing a beat. Things that would get very high people in positions in power in a lot of trouble. Some of that is playing out in the OPs post.