EXCLUSIVE: SNC pulls out of Navy’s trainer jet competition

T-45 Goshawk trainers on the carrier USS Washington. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Michael E. Wiese/Released)

PARIS — Sierra Nevada Corporation ( SNC ) is no longer competing for the Navy’s new training jet, Breaking Defense has learned, potentially leaving the service with only one true competitor to pick from.

“With great respect for the Navy and PMA-273, SNC could not responsibly bid the UJTS [Undergraduate Jet Training System] program under the current contract structure,” SNC said in a statement to Breaking Defense today in response to questions about whether it formally bid on the program by the Oct. 30 deadline . “We do remain committed to naval jet training and stand ready to re-engage if the approach is revisited.”

Textron Aviation Defense, the only known competitor to SNC, could not immediately be reached for comment about whether it bid for the UJTS program or not. However, if as expected, Textron and its partner Leonardo moved forward with offering the M-346N to the Navy, that would leave it as the de facto winner on the program.

The field of competitors for the UJTS program has narrowed in recent months, after Lockheed Martin announced in April it would not submit its offer of the TF-50N with Korea Aerospace Industries for the program. Similarly, Boeing announced in June it also would no longer participate in the competition. Then in September, Breaking Defense reported that Northrop Grumman was dropping off SNC’s bid , which was based around a clean-sheet design known as the Freedom. (Stavatti Aerospace, a group that regularly claims to have aerospace designs for every Pentagon contract, has said it submitted a bid on UJTS.)

The Navy plans for the UJTS to succeed the service’s T-45 Goshawk fleet that first entered the Navy’s fleet in the early 1990s to train both Navy and Marine Corps aviators for jet carrier aviation and tactical strike missions. The program office for UJTS told Breaking Defense today that the service stuck to an Oct. 30 deadline for requests for proposals for the program from industry — itself an extension from a previous RFP deadline of June 30.

The service also revealed it is slightly pushing back the timeline for awarding a contract on the closely-watched program.

While the Navy last said in a September request for proposal (RFP) that it planned to award a contract for the program by June 2027, the service is now estimating it won’t do so until sometime between July and the end of September 2027. That’s not the first time the award date has been pushed back, and the service originally planned to make a selection in March 2027.

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“The Government is in source selection with the intent to award the UJTS procurement in 4QFY27,” the office said.

While the T-45 lands on aircraft carriers, the Navy shared in a March RFP that it won’t require the new trainer jet to do so. The Navy also said it isn’t requiring the new aircraft to support field carrier landing practice (FCLP) to touch down, which seeks to simulate a carrier landing on an airfield runway.

Rather, the aircraft must support FCLP to wave off, and the Navy said in the notice that industry should share “unique aircraft simulation capabilities” to train aviators for carrier landings.

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T-45“苍鹰”教练机停泊在“华盛顿”号航空母舰上。（美国海军大众传播专家水兵迈克尔·E·维斯摄/发布）

巴黎——据《防务新闻》报道，内华达山脉公司（SNC）已退出海军新型教练机的竞标，这可能意味着海军最终只剩下一家真正的竞争对手可供选择。

SNC今天在一份声明中回应有关其是否已在10月30日截止日期前正式投标UJTS（本科生喷气机训练系统）项目的提问时表示：“出于对海军和PMA-273的尊重，SNC无法在目前的合同结构下负责任地参与该项目的投标。我们仍然致力于海军喷气机训练，如果合同结构有所调整，我们随时准备重新参与。”

德事隆航空防务公司是SNC公司唯一已知的竞争对手，目前尚无法联系到该公司就其是否参与UJTS项目竞标置评。然而，如果德事隆及其合作伙伴莱昂纳多公司如预期般向海军提交M-346N导弹系统，那么该公司实际上将成为该项目的中标者。

近几个月来，UJTS项目的竞争者范围有所缩小。洛克希德·马丁公司在4月份宣布，将不再提交其与韩国航空航天工业公司合作的TF-50N方案参与该项目竞标。同样，波音公司也在6月份宣布退出竞标。随后，《防务新闻》（Breaking Defense）在9月份报道称，诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司也放弃了SNC公司的竞标，该公司的方案基于一项名为“自由”（Freedom）的全新设计。（斯塔瓦蒂航空航天公司（Stavatti Aerospace）声称其为五角大楼的每一项航空航天合同都提供了设计方案，该公司表示已提交了UJTS项目的竞标方案。）

海军计划以联合联合训练系统（UJTS）取代其现役的T-45“苍鹰”教练机队。T-45“苍鹰”教练机于上世纪90年代初首次加入海军舰队，用于训练海军和海军陆战队飞行员执行舰载喷气式飞机和战术打击任务。UJTS项目办公室今天告诉《防务新闻》，海军坚持将该项目向业界提交提案的截止日期定在10月30日——这比之前6月30日的截止日期有所延长。

该机构还透露，备受关注的节目的合同授予时间表将略微推迟。

虽然海军在9月份发布的招标书中曾表示计划在2027年6月前授予该项目合同，但现在预计要到2027年7月至9月底之间才会完成。这并非该项目首次推迟授标日期，海军最初计划在2027年3月做出选择。

当任务硬件无法升级时，边缘计算就会失败。

这样做的好处是技术植入速度更快，避免被供应商锁定，并为自主性、传感器、武器和任务发展留出更多空间。

“政府正在进行供应商遴选，计划在2027财年第四季度授予UJTS采购合同，”该办公室表示。

尽管T-45教练机可以在航空母舰上起降，但海军在3月份发布的招标书中表示，不会要求新型教练机具备此功能。海军还表示，不会要求新型飞机支持野战航母着舰训练（FCLP）的着陆，该训练旨在模拟航母在机场跑道上的着舰过程。

相反，飞机必须支持 FCLP 挥手示意离港，海军在通知中表示，业界应该分享“独特的飞机模拟能力”，以训练飞行员进行航母着舰。

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