{"id":41859,"date":"2018-06-26T19:35:33","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T19:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/06\/26\/lockheed-exec-downplays-impact-of-kai-contracting-snafu-on-t-x-competition\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:27:18","slug":"lockheed-exec-downplays-impact-of-kai-contracting-snafu-on-t-x-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2018\/06\/26\/lockheed-exec-downplays-impact-of-kai-contracting-snafu-on-t-x-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Lockheed exec downplays impact of Korea contracting snafu on T-X trainer jet competition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FORT WORTH, Texas \u2014 As the U.S. Air Force prepares to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/air-warfare-symposium\/2017\/02\/27\/the-t-x-battle-comes-down-to-lockheed-and-boeing\/\" title=\"\" class=\"selected-link\" target=\"_blank\">announce the results of the T-X trainer jet competition<\/a> this summer, the head of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is confident its joint bid with Korea Aerospace Industries won\u2019t be hampered by a recent scandal involving KAI executives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last week, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/investigations\/korean-firm-tied-to-trump-lawyer-got-us-contract-despite-corruption-probe\/2018\/06\/18\/62b9bdee-6065-11e8-9ee3-49d6d4814c4c_story.html?utm_term=.f51e6f815a4f\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">The Washington Post reported<\/a> that KAI had won a U.S. Air Force contract to maintain F-16 jets without disclosing that several of its current and former executives had been indicted in a corruption case. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The executives were accused of bribery, embezzlement and defrauding the South Korean government, and experts told the Post that \u2014 should KAI had altered its previous filings, as required \u2014 the company could have come under greater scrutiny. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Orlando Carvalho, Lockheed\u2019s executive vice president of its aeronautics division, said he doesn\u2019t expect that trouble to bleed over to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/training-sim\/2016\/12\/30\/new-t-x-request-for-proposals-tees-up-major-fight-among-defense-primes\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">the T-X competition<\/a>, where KAI and Lockheed are partnered to offer the T-50A.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/air\/2017\/10\/16\/t-x-trainer-award-not-likely-until-at-least-spring-2018\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/3653597.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">T-X trainer award not likely until at least spring 2018<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">A contract for the Air Force\u2019s T-X trainer program probably won\u2019t be awarded until next spring, even if Congress is able to pass a spending bill that would remove restrictions on new-start programs, one of the service\u2019s top leaders said Thursday.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe KAI matter is between KAI and the Air Force and the government,\u201d he told Defense News in an exclusive interview Friday. \u201cWe have no involvement or participation in any of that. It revolves around a contract that KAI has directly with the Air Force, that\u2019s outside of anything that we do with KAI.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lockheed has not been contacted by the U.S. Defense Department or the U.S. Air Force for additional information regarding its relationship with KAI, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur expectation is that KAI will continue to address and ultimately resolve this issue they have, and our hope [is] they will do it in an expedient matter and allow everything to progress appropriately on the APT side,\u201d Carvalho said, using an acronym that stands for Advanced Pilot Trainer, another name for the T-X program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KAI was thrust into the spotlight earlier this month, when it was revealed that the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-usa-trump-daniels-korea-aerospace\/south-koreas-kai-says-paid-firm-of-trumps-lawyer-150000-for-accounting-advice-idUSKBN1IA135\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">had paid $150,000 to Michael Cohen<\/a> \u2014 best known as U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s former private lawyer \u2014 for consulting services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The bad press comes as the Air Force is on the verge to award the T-X trainer contract, which is expected sometime this summer. The entire 350-aircraft program is valued at $16.3 billion, and further sales internationally or to the other U.S. services could be possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lockheed and KAI\u2019s T-50A will compete against a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/breaking-news\/2016\/09\/13\/boeing-unveils-t-x-advanced-trainer-aircraft\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">clean-sheet design proposed by Boeing and Saab<\/a> as well as a version of Leonardo\u2019s M-346 trainer, which is operated by Italy, Singapore and Israel and is being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/digital-show-dailies\/dubai-air-show\/2017\/11\/14\/new-leonardo-exec-optimistic-on-business-reorganizations-effect-on-us-bids\/\" title=\"\" class=\"\" target=\"_blank\">marketed in the United States as the T-100<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The T-50A is a version of the Korean firm\u2019s supersonic T-50 trainer in use by South Korea, Indonesia, Iraq and the Philippines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lockheed\u2019s decades-long relationship with KAI continues to be \u201cvery strong,\u201d Carvalho said. The partnership dates back to the 1990s, when KAI produced a version of the F-16 domestically in South Korea. The T-50, South Korea\u2019s first indigenous supersonic aircraft, is heavily influenced by the F-16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The T-50 is seen as a front-runner to the competition by some analysts, who attribute that to the aircraft\u2019s high-performance capability and the fact that it is already in production. Lockheed\u2019s experience on the F-35 program is also seen as an advantage, as the T-X will be used to train a generation of F-35 pilots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The projected T-X contract date had already slipped once, from before the end of 2017 to sometime this summer, but the Air Force maintains it will keep to its current schedule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Carvalho said the U.S. government\u2019s rate of questions to the competitors is slowing, and the hope is that it could soon request final pricing data from the companies \u2014 a sign that a down-select is soon on the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur expectation is that we\u2019ll see that request soon,\u201d he said. \u201cOur hope is that we\u2019ll see the request in July, and hopefully that will enable a source selection in August or earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the T-50 fails to win T-X, Carvalho said, Lockheed will look for other opportunities to help KAI sell the aircraft in the international market. One possibility is the eventual replacement of the U.S. Navy\u2019s T-45 trainer jet, although the companies would need to ensure that the T-50 could be qualified to land on a carrier deck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Korea Aerospace Industries has had a rough month. Will that affect Lockheed and KAI&#8217;s chances of winning T-X?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":83333,"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":[7,45,160,11,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-41859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-asia-pacific","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3ECY7NGBHVAEJGDRYGWLPJYLI4","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2018\/06\/26\/lockheed-exec-downplays-impact-of-kai-contracting-snafu-on-t-x-competition\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lockheed exec downplays impact of Korea contracting snafu on T-X trainer jet competition - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Korea Aerospace Industries has had a rough month. 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