STOCKHOLM \u2014 If Boeing and Saab’s trainer wins the U.S. Air Force’s T-X competition, the Swedish Air Force will put serious thought into buying it. If another company nabs the contract, however, Sweden will likely opt for a much less expensive turboprop training aircraft, a Swedish Air Force official said Monday.
Lockheed Martin has partnered with Korea Aerospace Industries on the T-50A, a high-performance jet based on the T-50 already in use in South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Iraq. Italian firm Leonardo and its U.S. subsidiary DRS put forward the T-100, a souped-up version of the M-346 in use by Italy, Israel and other nations. Sierra Nevada Corporation and Turkish Aerospace Industries have offered the Freedom trainer, a clean-sheet design optimized to be a low-budget option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although the U.S. Air Force has incentivized companies to drive down the cost of the T-X competitors as much as possible, any of those aircraft \u2014 which are equipped with state-of-the-art avionics and have the performance of a light fighter jet \u2014 are likely to cost much more than a turboprop plane. However, the Boeing-Saab collaboration winning the T-X contract would mark a major victory for Swedish aerospace industry, making it an attractive option for Sweden even as it seeks to recapitalize other Air Force assets under a constrained defense budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boeing and Saab have not disclosed the workshare on the T-X, but it\u2019s likely that a significant portion of the jet would be manufactured in Sweden. Last June, aviation enthusiasts noticed a large piece of cargo \u2014 likely the center fuselage of the first T-X prototype \u2014 was sent from Norrk\u00f6ping to Boeing\u2019s facility in St. Louis, Missouri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
H\u00e5kan Bushke, Saab\u2019s CEO and president, said the Saab-Boeing team are angling for a win on the U.S. Air Force competition and would not divulge whether the companies would continue marketing its trainer internationally if it does not nab the contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The international market, I think it\u2019s great. It\u2019s a huge international market for these types of products,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But without the United States as a flagship customer willing to shoulder the expense of starting T-X production, the Swedish Air Force will not consider the Boeing-Saab aircraft, Liljegren said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sweden will begin phasing out its current training jets around 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":72384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,46,11,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-32638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-europe","category-global","category-training-sim"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"SF42BXBMLBDS7IQ2SQ3GTDV3LA","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2017\/05\/09\/swedish-air-force-interested-in-boeing-saab-trainer-jet-but-probably-not-other-t-x-options\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n