Leonardo will compete on its own to build the Air Force’s next trainer after announcing last month that it would no longer participate in the bidding process with Raytheon.
Leonardo DRS, the U.S. piece of the Italian defense company, announced on Wednesday that it will compete its T-100 for the contract to build the Air Force’s two-seat jet trainer. The T-100 is a modified version of the company’s M-346 aircraft, a trainer aircraft operated by Italy, Israel, Singapore and Poland.
The Air Force is expected to award the $16.3 billion contract sometime this year.
“Leonardo’s commitment to pursue the T-X builds on our deep experience in military pilots’ training and on the competitiveness of our T-100 integrated training systems that can meet the U.S. Air Force’s current and future needs,” said Mauro Moretti, CEO and general manager of Leonardo.
Leonardo had partnered with Raytheon and was expected to compete for the contract as a team, but announced that it was dropping out in late January. The split was reportedly over a conflict about where work on the planes would be done.
Northrop Grumman, which had partnered with BAE Systems on its proposal, also dropped out of the competition for the contract this month.
That means Leonardo will be competing against at least two teams that are still in the competition: a clean-sheet design from Boeing and Saab and a modified version of the F-50 from Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries. Analysts predicted that the Boeing-Saab team is the favorite to get the contract for up to 350 jets, but that it’s likely to be a “hard-fought” competition.
Air Force Chief Gen. David Goldfein told reporters this week that he’s happy with the competition for the program as long as there are at least two teams vying for the contract, and that he feels those still bidding have a good idea of what the service is looking for because of a contracting process that included extensive conversations with industry.
