U.S. Air Force T-X Procurement Needs to Focus on Time as well as Cost

Dan Goure

Security,

The Air Force knows it has already delayed replacing the T-38 far too long.

The United States Air Force is badly in need of a new jet trainer. The existing aircraft, the Northrop T-38, was first built in 1961. The average age of the current fleet of some 400 T-38s is over 43 years. The T-38 has already undergone one major, expensive upgrade and service life extension program in the early 2000s and will require another one if not replaced in a timely manner.

But the gap in capability between an aircraft representing the technologies of the last century and a combat force that will consist predominantly of fifth and even sixth-generation platforms is growing. The T-38 is unable to conduct 12 of 18 advanced pilot training tasks requiring that they be performed in fighter and bomber training units at significantly increased costs.

The Air Force knows it has already delayed replacing the T-38 far too long. The rationale for delaying acquisition of a new trainer, a lack of money, makes little sense when one considers the increased costs of sustaining a 40-year-old aircraft that will be 60 years old by the time the last one leaves service, the costs imposed on other training units and the expense of upgrading an aging and obsolescent aircraft.  Already the Air Force has been forced to undertake replacement of life-limited structural components on some 150 at-risk T-38s to ensure an adequate trainer fleet through the end of the 2020s. These are upgrades needed merely to keep the old T-38s flying and do nothing to enhance their performance.

The current plan is to release the formal Request for Proposal (RFP) in December and award a contract by the end of 2017. According to Air Force and industry sources, initial operating capability is to be delivered in 2024 and full operating capability in 2034. Any further delay in completing the acquisition process or in providing aircraft will put the Air Force in an untenable position. The service has an array of major programs that will be in full rate production in the 2020s and 2030s including the F-35 fighter, B-21 bomber, KC-46A tanker, intelligence platform replacements and a new search and rescue helicopter. After that there is the potential sixth-generation fighter and a follow-on strategic tanker.