At a briefing yesterday, Chris Chadwick, President and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS), and a member of the Executive Council of The Boeing Company, gave an overview of Boeing and Saab's involvement in the T-X programme that has been established to enable the US Air Force (USAF) to acquire a new two-seat jet trainer for fast-jet training to replace the Northrop T-38.
Chadwick informed a group of journalists from the USAF chief’s perspective, whose top three priorities are: F-35, Tanker, and LRS; while T-X is "just" the fourth priority. "We see funding emerge," he said, directing any specifics to the USAF.
"When we looked at the TX opportunity, with a potential opportunity for follow-on sales internationally; what would help the customer most would be a purpose build platform, focused on their requirements, their needs, not someone else’s," Chadwick continued. "So we consciously went into this with Saab to break the price curve and provide the customer with the right capability at the right cost at the right time for the T-X requirement."
According to the CEO, Saab has been a very successful company in a small country in designing, developing, and delivering a top line fighter aircraft: The GRIPEN. "They design in a very efficient manner, with a very similar culture to the BDS culture. So it was a natural, taking the best of two worlds, bringing our capabilities what we have learned across our programmes, our world class capability to produce Phantom Works technology, it has been the ultimate 1+1=4. We still have to compete, we still have to win, but we are at a very strong position."
Chris Chadwick concluded by saying: "The team that wins T-X will be in the driver seat for international sales. An international customer procures US capabilities for two reasons: The capability itself and the realtionship with the US. It would be very difficult to sell capability if you did not win."
Chadwick informed a group of journalists from the USAF chief’s perspective, whose top three priorities are: F-35, Tanker, and LRS; while T-X is "just" the fourth priority. "We see funding emerge," he said, directing any specifics to the USAF.
"When we looked at the TX opportunity, with a potential opportunity for follow-on sales internationally; what would help the customer most would be a purpose build platform, focused on their requirements, their needs, not someone else’s," Chadwick continued. "So we consciously went into this with Saab to break the price curve and provide the customer with the right capability at the right cost at the right time for the T-X requirement."
According to the CEO, Saab has been a very successful company in a small country in designing, developing, and delivering a top line fighter aircraft: The GRIPEN. "They design in a very efficient manner, with a very similar culture to the BDS culture. So it was a natural, taking the best of two worlds, bringing our capabilities what we have learned across our programmes, our world class capability to produce Phantom Works technology, it has been the ultimate 1+1=4. We still have to compete, we still have to win, but we are at a very strong position."
Chris Chadwick concluded by saying: "The team that wins T-X will be in the driver seat for international sales. An international customer procures US capabilities for two reasons: The capability itself and the realtionship with the US. It would be very difficult to sell capability if you did not win."