Lockheed Martin Flies First T-50A Upgraded Aircraft for T-X Competition
09:38 ET from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company



ORT WORTH, Texas, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) successfully completed the initial flight test of its T-50A configured aircraft. The T-50A is the company's aircraft offering in the U.S. Air Force's Advanced Pilot Training competition.

"The aircraft in its new configuration with the 5th Gen cockpit and other upgrades performed flawlessly," said Mark Ward, Lockheed Martin T-50A lead test pilot, after his flight in Sacheon, South Korea. "I have no doubt this aircraft will close the gap which currently exists between the trainer fleet and 5th Generation fighters."

The T-50A is low risk and ready now. It builds on the proven heritage of the T-50 with more than 100 T-50s flying today—100,000 flight hours and counting—and more than 1,000 pilots.

The T-50A is the only current offering that meets all APT requirements and can deliver those capabilities on schedule at the lowest risk to the customer. Lockheed Martin teams studied clean-sheet alternatives and determined they pose prohibitive risk to APT cost and schedule requirements. The T-50A delivers the performance and capabilities needed to prepare pilots to fly, fight and win with 5th Generation fighter aircraft.

Lockheed Martin is currently standing up its T-50A Final Assembly and Checkout site in Greenville, South Carolina.

The T-50A was developed jointly by Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries. The accompanying T-50A Ground-Based Training System features innovative technologies that deliver an immersive, synchronized ground-based training platform.

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Lockheed's T-50A Lifts Off for First Time Ahead of T-X Competition
Lara Seligman, Defense News 11:48 a.m. EDT June 2, 2016



WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin's upgraded T-50A jet trainer successfully completed its first flight test, a key milestone for the aircraft Lockheed is offering for the Air Force's next-generation trainer fleet.

The flight took place in Sacheon, South Korea, as the T-50A is currently manufactured there jointly by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Lockheed Martin.

"The aircraft in its new configuration with the 5th Gen cockpit and other upgrades performed flawlessly," Mark Ward, Lockheed Martin T-50A lead test pilot, said after his flight. "I have no doubt this aircraft will close the gap which currently exists between the trainer fleet and 5th Generation fighters."

The T-X is a crucial piece of the Air Force's plan to eventually replace all of its fighter jets with the fifth-generation F-35s and F-22s, as the service needs an upgraded trainer fleet to properly train its rising pilots to fly fifth-generation aircraft.



Lockheed earlier this year announced it would offer the T-50A for the Air Force's T-X program to replace its aging T-38 trainers, nixing a plan to offer clean-sheet design. The key advantage of offering the T-50A instead of a clean-sheet design is that the Korean aircraft is ready for production now, Lockheed officials have said. More than 100 T-50s and more than 1,000 pilots are flying in South Korea, Indonesia, Iraq, the Philippines and Thailand.

For the T-X offering, Lockheed added capabilities to the existing T-50 in a block upgrade that includes embedded training, open system architecture, inflight refueling and a fifth-generation cockpit to better train pilots to fly modern aircraft. The jets will be built in South Korea and in Greenville, South Carolina, where Lockheed is currently standing up its T-50A Final Assembly and Checkout (FACO) site.

The Air Force is planning to release a request for proposals (RFP) for T-X in December, with a contract award expected sometime next year or early 2018, according to Lockheed spokesman Rob Fuller. Full operational capability of the T-X fleet has been pushed two years from when it was originally planned, from fiscal 2032 to 2034. Initial operational capability remains as planned in 2024.

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