Le Bourget, France—Although Boeing has partnered successfully with BAE Systems on building the T-45 Goshawk jet trainer for the Navy, it is “keeping its options open” about how it will approach the Air Force’s T-X trainer aircraft competition, said Boeing Military Aircraft President Chris Chadwick. That includes teaming with other partners, or even a clean-sheet design, Chadwick told reporters here Tuesday at the Paris Air Show. He said he thinks the T-X will be a completely new kind of training system, with far heavier emphasis on simulators and less on airplanes in order to hold down cost and risk. “That’s the future,” he said. (For more T-X coverage from Paris, read Budget Pressures on Future Trainer.)
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
