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.)
Anduril and General Atomics will develop their Collaborative Combat Aircraft for the Air Force, beating out Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, the service announced on April 24. But any of the non-selected companies can compete to actually manufacture the eventual design, the Air Force said.