BAE To Bid Hawk For USAF T-X

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=aerospacedaily&id=news/asd/2010/09/09/06.xml


BAE Systems is planning to propose its single-engine Hawk trainer as the U.S. Air Force begins to move slowly toward a competition for a T-38 replacement.

The average age of the T-38 last year was 42 years, but financial pressures in the Pentagon are forcing the Air Force to push off its plans for a replacement until 2012 at the earliest.

BAE’s announcement came Sept. 8, only days before the annual Air Force Association convention next week in Washington. Likely competitors are the twin-engine Aermacchi M346 and the Lockheed Martin/KAI T-50. Boeing also has left the door open to designing a trainer for the Air Force.